Could you befriend a care home resident?

12/07/2007

Many older people in care homes have no family to visit them on a regular basis, which makes occasions like Christmas or Mother's Day very painful. We all need special visitors - and something or someone to look forward to. Which is why St Wilfrid’s Nursing Care Home in the village of Halton on Lune, Lancashire, is inviting outgoing people with spare time on their hands to befriend elderly residents.

Visitors would be asked to join a new Friends of St Wilfrid’s group, who could also offer support with voluntary work of baking cakes for events. But the most important role would be to visit residents whose relatives live too far away to visit, or who are all alone in the world.
 
Nursing Home manager Jeanette Bacon said: “For residents who don’t have families, we always try and make a big fuss of them - but there is nothing like having your own special visitors. It is quite unusual for a care home to set up this type of group which is usually associated with hospitals. However, there would be many benefits, both to residents and the volunteers themselves, as this type of voluntary work can be extremely rewarding.”
 
St Wilfrid’s is located at St Wilfrid’s Hall - a former vicarage built at the turn of the century, set on a hill overlooking the Lune valley. Anybody interested in becoming a friend of St Wilfrid’s should contact Jeanette Bacon on 01524 811229.