Write a commentOne of the many services being provided to the older and vulnerable in our community at this time, is the Good Morning and Good Day Good Carer services, run by the Confederation of Community Groups (CCG) in Ballybot House, Newry.
The Good Morning Service is aimed at older people living by themselves, while Good Day Good Carer gives vital support to the community of full-time carers across the Southern Trust area. A brigade of silent soldiers has been enlisted whose job is to break the silence, to talk to those who have no-one to talk to. Spread out all over Newry and Mourne, the Good Morning and Good Day volunteers are now in their own homes, making calls every day to the people who need it most.
"I came to the post," says current incumbent Conor Keenan, "on the heels of my predecessor Gerry Carey, a very well-known voluntary sector professional who had done years of work, developing the service to great levels. There were always isolated people in our community, but this recent health crisis has brought that isolation to a whole other section of the community and worsened it for others."
A big step in the lifetime of the projects was the development of a purpose-built call centre in Ballybot House, which Pat Quinn, the other project co-ordinator explains: “Our present centre developed from very humble beginnings. Initially the service was literally run from a landline and a piece of paper recording the calls. We then took over a couple of tiny rooms within Ballybot House and installed two computers with a local IT engineer Aidan Mallon ably assisting with a dedicated piece of software. Later we added two small storerooms, but still demand for the service outstripped our capacity to deliver. We then made an application to the Wolfson Foundation in London and with extra financial help from CCG board, we constructed a state-of-the-art call centre incorporating sound proofing, air conditioning and a tea/coffee station.”
The success of the Good Morning service was noted initially by the Carers Trust who approached the Confederation to develop a similar service for Carers. CCG won this subsequent tender to deliver Good Day Good Carer as an outbound telephone support service across the Southern Health Trust Area.
That centre now lies quiet, but all over the area, volunteers continue to make the calls, keeping vital lines of communication open.
"It's strangely quiet now, I had to go into Ballybot House last week to bring a laptop to a volunteer, and I could see inside the centre, no volunteers were there but the screens were on and calls were being made, remotely. One volunteer was in Newcastle, others in Newry City, another signing in from Crossmaglen. The volunteers have responded to the challenge so well, and it's a credit to them how they have continued to provide the service which is even more crucial that it was in the past”. explains Conor.
The Good Morning and Good Day services are key elements of the wider community response, and callers from this area when they call in to the Covid-19 Helpline are offered support and companionship in the form of a telephone call through the CCG projects.
For this, a rarely lauded group deserves credit according to CCG Development Manager, Laurence Bradley. "Key to CCG maintaining the level of service from our projects was a quick response from our IT engineers. Gerard Lundy and in particular Aidan Mallon from Arcadian IT have been instrumental in that process. Aidan has been with us from the start, he has built the Good Morning and Good day systems from scratch, and he has responded to this and every challenge that we have thrown at him"
Libraries could be filled with the stories told to the volunteers, but for now, the tales pass from caller to volunteer only.
"I think we are all aware the challenges that we are facing are difficult, but they pale in comparison to what others are facing, says Conor. " I have cleared out my bedroom to set up my home office, and I was having a difficult day trying to get things done, keep two small kids entertained, and allow my wife to get her own work done as well. That afternoon I took a call from a heartbroken woman who had lost her brother a few days previous, due to the restrictions he was buried in an empty graveyard, with no-one there to say goodbye. That sort of call snaps you out of any self-pity fairly quickly".
The volunteers hear amazing tales as well, of working lives in Canada, careers in long forgotten professions like seamstresses, linen workers and telegram delivery boys. Over the next while the Good Morning and Good Day projects will keep the lines of communication open and the phone ringing, until finally, their callers will start to hear their door bells ring again, and be able to see a friendly face across from them. I think we can all appreciate the value of a good chat at this time.
For more information on the Good Morning or Good Day Projects, contact the co-ordinators Pat Quinn pquinn@ccgnewrycommunity.org or Conor Keenan ckeenan@ccgnewrycommunity.org
