Silva Homes ‘phone pals’ cheer up lonely customers
With more than 2,000 customers aged 65 and over, many of whom are self-isolating, we are doing everything we can to help keep loneliness at bay.
Each week, over twenty Silva colleagues make a total of 200 calls to customers who have requested this service because they are living in isolation.
They chat about anything and everything and it gives our customers a chance to have an informal and friendly conversation with someone who they wouldn’t usually interact with.
Our new ‘phone pals’ service is in huge demand and we have had over 1000 people already sign up to receive these calls!
One elderly woman, who lives on her own in one of our independent living homes commented on this programme: “I’d just like tell you how much I appreciate the great phone calls I’ve been having from the Silva phone pals. They really do make my day, especially as they’re from such a diverse crowd.”
Dasos Christou, our executive director (customer relations) commented: “As a housing association, we are in a position to help improve the lives of over 14,000 people.
“As soon as it became clear that coronavirus would impact our customers, we acted to ensure that as many services as possible were available for those who were isolating.
“We wanted to make sure that everyone could access our support, not just those people with a phone or the internet, so we’ve introduced a range of schemes to ensure all our customers get the help they need.
“Our approach so far has had really positive feedback and I’m extremely proud of how hard our teams have worked in the face of this unprecedented challenge, especially those on the frontline.”
In addition to the phone pals scheme, we have recently introduced an essential supplies and food delivery service for all our isolating customers and we have continued to deliver personalised entertainment and support for elderly customers, such as this birthday surprise for 100-year-old Winnie.