The demand for a service that provides companionship and welfare for elderly people is steadily increasing.
The Red Cross Telecross service connects volunteers with elderly and vulnerable people over the phone to make sure they are OK and to provide a friendly ear.
But as Australia’s population ages, particularly the baby boomer generation, the demands for the service grow more rapidly.
There’s also been an increase in people from non-English speaking backgrounds who, as they age, are more competent speaking their first language.
Rosalia Salleo, 73, is one of the Telecross volunteers and was born in Italy.
“It’s a wonderful thing to do because I don’t have to get out of the house,” she said.
“I just talk to my beautiful ladies on the phone.”
One of her ‘beautiful ladies’ is 88-year-old Filomena Discenza who left Italy in her thirties to live in Western Australia.
The pair speaks Italian twice a week over the phone and have done since February.
But they only met for the first time recently, fittingly in an Italian café where the “ciao bellas" and coffee were in great supply.
“It was a pleasure meeting Filomena for the very first time,” Ms Salleo said.
“I think it’s wonderful, wonderful meeting Filomena.
“It’s a pleasure, she’s a beautiful lady.”
Ms Discenza had to travel three hours for the meeting.
She lives by herself in Merredin east of Perth.
Her two sons live nearby, but she said the phone calls with Ms Salleo in her native tongue made her very happy.
Telecross team leader Sheryl Foster said the service needed more volunteers who spoke other languages.
“We’re getting more Chinese-language clients and it would be great to have the Chinese-language volunteers to speak to them on a regular basis,” she said.
“But also the European clients.
“I think Italian is probably the biggest group.”
The phone calls are also a regular welfare check.
They are made between 7:30am and 9:30am because that window is when clients may have suffered falls in the night or morning, or had passed away.
The service has helped several clients that have needed medical assistance.
“We had another gentleman who was found on the floor of his home,” Ms Foster said.
“When we got him to hospital, the doctor told him that if it had been another 30 minutes without assistance, he would have passed away.
“So that gentleman actually paid Red Cross back for saving his life by volunteering for Red Cross calling every year.”
