Friendly Voice A Phone Call Away
If you were a senior citizen living all alone in your home or apartment in North Idaho and your kids lived in other states, who would know if you were OK?
The volunteers who operate Telecare would know because they call you every day just to see how you are doing.
Telecare is a “telephone reassurance program for those who live alone,” said Joyce DeMille, who with her daughter Susie DeMille, volunteers to coordinate the program from their home.
Joyce explained that the program helps to keep elderly in their home for as long as possible, and it keeps them comfortable and safe. Seven callers, who also volunteer their time, take turns calling one morning a week. They now have 27 clients but have had as many as 45 at one time.
The Telecare callers call every day and even on holidays, including Christmas. Many of the clients “are spending the holidays alone, so they appreciate having someone call,” added Joyce.
Elmer Nipp, 83, said, “It’s wonderful. It helps lift me up every day. They tell me things to make me laugh. When you get through talking to these people, you feel good.”
After his wife died three years ago, he felt depressed and just did not feel like doing much. “I don’t know if I’d gone this far without the calls,” he said.
Susie DeMille, who helps with the calls and the coordination of the program, points out that with some of the clients she “won’t hang up until they laugh. Then I know they are doing better.” She knows that “all of the callers are sad when one of the clients dies, because we are all like family in this.”
They have had clients who did not answer their call, so the callers either call the police or the backup number to have someone visit the home. On occasion they have discovered that the client died during the night.
Each client knows that they will be called at a certain time each day just to check on them, so when they do not answer it usually means trouble.
Lively Bea McDonald, 84, may be legally blind and refuses to use her white cane to the great concern of many, but she knows when to expect the call. “I sit in that chair by the phone at 9 in the morning and wait for that call,” she said. “I love it, and I’d be lost without it. It reminds me that someone is thinking about me.”
Bea grew up in the mining town of Burke and worked in the mines of Shoshone County. She remembers when “the men used to scoff at us and said we could not do the work, but we showed them!” She also remembers that as a kid sitting on her front porch, she could touch the trainman if she leaned out when the train came by.
Bill McDonald, Bea’s son, is moving back to this area. “My brother and I appreciate those calls very much. When you live out of state, it certainly is reassuring to know someone is checking on your mom, and you know it is being done so well,” he said.
The callers seem to get as much out of the program as the clients do. Phillipa Preston, a retired switchboard operator, serves as one of the callers. She loves talking with the folks who are home-bound and has become close to many of them.
“John could not read any more, so I would read parts of the paper to him. You know, I never met him, but he just touched my heart. I felt so sad when he died,” she lamented. John’s home health nurse called her in Canada to tell her of his passing.
Myron Higbee, ombudsman for Aging and Adult Services, recruited the first callers to get this program going about 10 years ago. “The people on it really seemed to enjoy it,” he said. LifeLine, maybe playing a “growing safety role for homebound seniors, but Telecare’s social role cannot be discounted,” he emphasized.
One of Higbee’s first volunteer callers was Loretta Olson, who still is with the program. Other callers are Carlyn Boyce, Wanda Holden, Helen Landon, Gwen Gebolt and Phillipa Preston. Susie and Joyce DeMille are the coordinators, but they also share in the weekly calling duties.
Volunteers are welcome to call Susie at 623-5136. The calls are planned so well that no one has to call outside of their calling area.