CSV has today welcomed the Audit Commission’s reference to the importance that volunteering can play in securing a better future for the nation’s ageing population. (Thursday 17th July 2008)

It comes in response to the Commission’s national study on well being in later life - Don't Stop Me Now - which says that councils are unprepared for a rise in the number of older people in our communities.

Speaking about the report, Director of CSV’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme, Denise Murphy, said:

“We made it clear to the researchers working on this report that only a small number of local authorities had any meaningful strategy for older people that embraced the benefits of volunteering.

“Older people must be seen as a resource, not as a problem. By volunteering they can combat for themselves some of the physical as well as mental problems, such as depression, that may confront them and their counterparts in later years.

“Our own experience from working with more than 12,000 older volunteers is that involving them in volunteering has enormous benefits in promoting good health and well-being. It can also combat the threat of isolation that can affect the large numbers of older people who slip through the net of services currently provided by local councils.”

Our experience shows how this can work:

Camden Networkers

RSVP recruits older volunteers to pass on information about healthy living and accessing health-related services and activities to other older people. It particularly targets isolated older people and those with mental health problems. Research shows that the best way of communicating information locally is by word of mouth. 152 people are currently volunteering, 60% of which are from Black Minority Ethnic (BME) communities. Older people can share ideas and experience, attend events, socialise and receive up-to-date information.

Telephone befriending:

We have programmes of telephone befriending for people who don’t necessarily want people visiting them in their own homes, but want the strength that a network can provide. In Camden, we have 150 housebound people networked together. We encourage many of those who receive ‘a friendly call’ to go on to become volunteers themselves.

The power of knitting:

We have over 2,000 people, many housebound, who are finding new meaning to their lives through the simple craft of knitting. They may not be able to leave their homes, but they can supply knitted trauma teddies for firemen to give to children at the scene of an accident. These older people in turn receive letters from the emergency services - helping the older person feel they still have a lot to offer.

Involving young people

We know that there’s scope for engaging younger generations – especially at a time when the government commission is looking at options for involving young people in their communities.

Our experience is that young people are willing to help older people live independently in their homes. CSV has younger people taking career breaks or gap years living in the homes of people in their 70’s, 80s or even their 90s, enabling these people to live active social lives in their communities. Both parties have a rewarding time.

Linking with GP surgeries- Tackling rural isolation

A primary care scheme run by CSV’s senior volunteers throughout the UK is helping to tackle the health problems of older and disadvantaged people caused by inner city deprivation and rural isolation. Doctors ‘prescribe’ RSVP volunteers to elderly patients as one way of breaking down isolation. They often encourage patients to become volunteers themselves.

CSV’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme (RSVP) deploys teams of older volunteers, aged 50-plus, to provide community care services that complement and support those provided by statutory and other voluntary agencies for elderly and disadvantaged people.

Over 2,000 older primary care volunteers currently help approximately 10,000 patients at over 270 GP practices in the UK. Volunteers from the primary care scheme get involved in a wide range of activities which include helping out  in hospitals, health centres and GP’s surgeries,  transporting patients who have no access to public transport, collecting house-bound patients’ prescriptions, working with the disabled, setting up and running lunch clubs, and running telephone befriending projects.

Research shows that volunteer involvement at GP surgeries reduces patient prescriptions by 30% and hospital appointments by 35%. American research highlights the health benefits for the older volunteers too. They generally live longer and tend to be more optimistic, productive and empowered, and less disabled by poor health than those who do no volunteer work.

Some RSVP volunteers may themselves have various disabilities, and their work gets them involved in local communities and helps to keep them active too.

Further press information: Jason Tanner / Paul Donohoe on 020 7812 0038 / 37 or 07941433598

Notes for editors:

1) The Audit Commission national study on well-being in later life will be published tomorrow under the title Don't Stop Me Now - preparing for an ageing population. http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk Full report: Don't Stop Me Now

2) CSV (Community Service Volunteers) creates opportunities for people to take an active part in the life of their communities through volunteering, training and community action. In 2006/7 229,869 people gave time as volunteers through CSV. CSV trained 12,309 people of all ages and linked 29,000 people to learning through BBC Local Radio. www.csv.org.uk

3) Over the past twenty years RSVP has recruited around 20,000 volunteers who have helped more than 150,000 children to read, knitted more than 250,000 teddies for traumatised children and 70,000 garments for premature babies as well as befriending 1,000 isolated older people.