What do Contact the Elderly Groups do? 

Contact the Elderly is a national charity that has been bringing older, isolated people together for "cakes and company" for nearly 40 years.

One Sunday afternoon a month, throughout the UK, Groups meet regularly for tea and companionship. Each elderly guest is assigned a volunteer driver and together they become part of a small group invited to a volunteer hosts’ home for tea with the other members of the Group.  They visit a different host each month, but the Group remains the same and relationships grow. 

A warm welcome; a family home; meeting old friends and new, provides older members with companionship and a vital link with the community from which they have become isolated. 

 This simple idea is the essence of our services  

What sort of elderly people can Contact the Elderly help? 

Our guests usually: 

·      live alone

·      are aged 75 and upwards – most are in their 80’s, 90’s or more

·      are unable to get out without assistance

·      are without friends or relatives nearby

·      feel very lonely and live isolated lives 

What does a Contact the Elderly Group consist of? 

There are three elements to a Group:

§         volunteer drivers with cars - about 5

§         volunteer hosts with ground floor facilities and easy access - ideally 12

§         elderly guests - some 8 to 10

Drivers -- need to be free just one (Sunday) afternoon each month.

They collect the same elderly guest (or two) from home, driving them to the host’s home to spend a couple of hours together over tea before return home.

Hosts -- invite a group to tea just one afternoon a year (more if they like). They need a warm heart, a big teapot, and a downstairs loo!

Elderly guests -- need to be mobile enough to get to the car with a helping hand, and perhaps be able to negotiate 2 or 3 steps, with help.

To find out where your local Contact the Elderly Group is please call 0800 716 543

"My husband died, so after 25 years I had no one - I stood alone except for a distant relative.  Many people feel lonely and end up shutting themselves away.  Contact the Elderly is a great scheme - I appreciate it from my heart.”   - Moira, 88 

  Background and History 

Edith is 93 years old and lives alone. She wants to continue living in her own home for as long as she is able, but she has paid a high price for her independence. For days at a time the only contact she has with anyone outside her home has been with visiting care workers. They’re very nice, but they don’t have time to stay and talk. So she sits, she remembers, she watches television – and she shares her thoughts with no-one.  Edith is just one of some 5 million people aged over 75 living in Britain today.

Established in 1965, Contact the Elderly is a modest size, national registered charity committed to relieving the acute loneliness of very elderly people - increasingly those in their eighties, nineties and more - who live alone with inadequate or limited social support from family, friends or statutory services.

As life expectancy grows and patterns of family life continue to change, an increasing number of elderly people find themselves living alone, often far from any family.  Many, if not most, prefer to live independently, but this becomes more difficult as services are eroded, and their spirited independence can leave them living alone and increasingly disabled by age. Above all, diminishing mobility, in many cases exacerbated by physical and sensory disability, reduces elderly people’s social contacts, bringing acute isolation and loneliness.

Through our volunteer-network we offer a simple yet effective act of friendship as each month volunteer drivers take otherwise-housebound elderly guests to the home of volunteer hosts, where all enjoy the warmth of friendship for a few hours.  We work closely with numerous statutory and voluntary organisations concerned with the elderly, yet our service remains unique as:

·        We offer a group activity which encourages a discreet monitoring of the health and welfare of a very vulnerable section of the community; relationships to develop between elderly Group members and volunteers; intergenerational links between people of all ages;

·        We operate at weekends when most services for elderly people are not available;

·        We offer private hospitality often within a family environment - a rare alternative to the institutional care usually available to frail, elderly people;

·        Our volunteers’ simple act of friendship requires a limited time commitment, yet makes a significant difference to the isolated elderly people they befriend;

Research, such as the current ESRC Growing Older research programme shows that loneliness and the associated social isolation of elderly people plays a pivotal role in physical and mental health with further serious ramifications for the health and social services. Contact the Elderly can and already does play an important role as part of the total service provision required by this group, including those facing depression caused by isolation, as health providers formally recognize social contact can help to reverse the condition.