Lifetime Connection Without Walls: Virtual program helps fight senior loneliness

AUSTIN (KXAN) — With the holiday season in full swing, Family Eldercare is searching for volunteers to virtually connect with those who are ages 55 and older and help them combat feelings of loneliness and social isolation.

KXAN’s Avery Travis and Will DuPree spoke with Meghan Jones with Family Eldercare about its program, "Lifetime Connections Without Walls."

Use the video player above to listen to the full discussion or read an edited transcription of the conversation below.

DUPREE: Let's first dive into who this program benefits and what it involves.

JONES: Yes, so it's a virtual program, and it's available to anyone who is 55 or older, and quite frankly, it's available to anyone in Austin or across the country, because it's a virtual opportunity. We utilize volunteers to help facilitate the programs that we put on through it.

TRAVIS: Talk about those volunteers who are kind of best suited to sign up to help with this, and what are you asking of them?

JONES: It's really anybody who is OK with being on the phone because it's what we call virtual. All of the programs are available by phone, and some of them are also available via video, but most of our seniors, our older population, are so much more comfortable with the phone that we see a higher participation rate that way.

Of course, when you volunteer, we will give you a computer screen that will show you the names of each person who is logged in via their phone, and then, of course, controls for if you need to play a song in it, or you need to call out a name, or that kind of thing. So some computer skills are required, but it truly -- any age. You can do it from home. I guess technically, you can do it from your office. So, you just want somebody who wants to connect.

DUPREE: You touched on it briefly there. But what kinds of programming would the volunteer be able to offer those who were connecting over their phones?

JONES: We do four quarterly sessions a year, and each of those has about 30 or more opportunities.

Right now we are looking specifically for “Coffee Talk,” which is a social gathering bingo, which I have to say, I always think would be fun to do.

And then “Brain Aerobics,” and in that case, you can come up with some ideas, or we can also provide you with different game options to go over.

We also one of the most popular at this time is “Name Your Tune,” which I think is really fun. We have a volunteer who curates a specific list for the 30 to 45 minutes and plays music. People get to talk about it. The volunteer gets to say, “Yep, that's right,” or “Do you remember this band?” kind of thing.

TRAVIS: Lastly, we do want to ask you for volunteers who may be considering, what does the time commitment look like? And then, on the flip, what have you seen here, the benefits to people who receive these programs?

JONES: From a volunteer standpoint, each session or each program is 30 to 45 minutes, but we do recommend that volunteers also hold 15 minutes on either side to transition from their daily routine into the volunteer activity and out of it into their daily routine.

Also, we're trying to provide some consistency, so these programs generally happen weekly. We're not asking everybody to do it on a weekly basis, but we do ask for a commitment of about six months, so at least six times.

I guess I could also say there's training involved because we're asking you to be a facilitator. We want you to understand how to facilitate, especially an older generation that's on the phone, yeah.

DUPREE: Can you tell us where people can go if they would like to volunteer?

JONES: If you'd like to volunteer or sign up, it's best to email us at LCWW@familyeldercare.org.