When Amber Carroll was running the
San Francisco Transitional Care Program, which helps old people make the move
from acute hospital care back to their own homes, she regularly referred her
clients to Senior Center Without Walls, an Oakland-based telephone community
for homebound seniors living throughout the Bay Area.
Think about it. Being old can be a
lonely experience. It's not just that your friends are dying; your whole world
is dying. The cultural touchstones of your youth are disappearing from the
scene, and young people don't know what you're talking about when you mention
people or things that, to you, are as common as the air you breathe.
But it's even worse when illness
limits your mobility to the point where you're stuck at home all the time.
That's where Senior Center Without
Walls comes in. It offers dozens of conference call conversations each week,
ranging from the practical – fall prevention, food safety, Medicare, end of
life issues – to the profound, including meditation, daily gratitude, and a
lively philosophy discussion group called Socrates Café.
Plus: trivia contests, singalongs,
Bingo, Boggle, pet tales (or is that pet tails?), armchair travel tours of
far-off places conducted by volunteers who have just returned, and "D.J.
Jeff's All Request Show," when SCWW staffer Jeff Cheung spins stax'o'wax
ranging from Frankie Avalon and Bobby Vinton to Etta James and Devo. Whatever
your interest, chances are SCWW has a chat group for it.
And here's the best part: Not only is
it low-tech – who doesn't know how to dial a telephone? – it's totally free,
thanks to the generosity of SCWW's sponsor, Episcopal Senior Communities, which
pays for the calls.
Carroll was so impressed with the
good that Senior Center Without Walls was doing for her clients, when she heard
a few months ago that the position of director was opening up, she applied for
it – and won the job.
"I've been referring people to
Senior Center Without Walls for so long," she says, "it's a thrill to
join this organization I've admired for years."
Senior Center Without Walls
purposely keeps the paid staff as small as possible in order to devote more
money to the people it serves. But there are still some expenses that can't be
avoided, including the cost of the calls. So if you'd like to help, send a
tax-deductible check to Senior Center Without Walls, 114 Montecito Avenue,
Oakland CA 94610.
A few years ago one of SCWW's
clients, Nanetta Washington of Hayward, died, and all the friends she had made
over the phone held a memorial service for her – over the phone, of course. They
comforted each other and talked about what a great person she was and how much
they valued her friendship.
"Those conference calls made
all the difference in her life," her husband told me. "After she got
sick, her life shrunk down to our house, then to our bedroom, and finally down
to our bed. Then she found out about Senior Center Without Walls, and her world
opened up again."
If you know someone over 60 who
might enjoy participating in a SCWW group, please show them this column and
tell them to call toll-free 877-797-7299
to sign up. As Nanetta Washington's husband said, it can make all the
difference in the world.
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