Seniors lend an ear to their homebound neighbors

Adrienne Smith, left, and Nora Grenawalt are among the volunteers at Riverdale Neighborhood House’s Telephone Reassurance Program. Photo by Claudio Papapietro

By Manny Grossman

"Good morning Pablo, it's Nora from the Riverdale Neighborhood House."

With that, Nora Grenawalt, a three-year volunteer at Riverdale Neighborhood House's Telephone Reassurance Program, greets one of the 50 homebound seniors that get a call every day from volunteers like her and her Friday morning partner Adrienne Smith.

"Well my goodness gracious, how are you feeling?" Ms. Smith asked Bernice Venable, a 77-year-old homebound Co-op City resident. "They weren't able to reach you. You must've found that boyfriend," Ms. Smith joked.

Esther BarShai, deputy director of social services at Neighborhood House, said the program provides peace of mind for the families of those who receive calls.

"We're another set of eyes," she said.

The age of those who receive calls range from 58 to 101, and 98 percent of the seniors who get calls are widows and widowers, many of whom suffer from depression and physical ailments. Ms. BarShai explained that the program covers the entire borough, with senior centers, hospitals and social service institutions like JASA, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein Hospital, Riverdale Senior Services and the Riverdale Mental Health Association providing referrals.

But a unique feature of the program is that the volunteer callers are all senior citizens themselves.

"Seniors are not able to talk with younger people," Ms. Grenawalt observed. She said that talk often turns to yesteryear, and because of that "we can relate."

Indeed, both Ms. Grenawalt and Ms. Smith seemed like members of the family to those they were calling. Ms. Grenawalt was speaking to a man named Pablo, and during the course of the conversation she pulled him away from a depressed state where "he wanted to stay in bed all day." After a bit of coaxing, Pablo promised he would go visit his local church and spend time with people.

Ms. Venable, who Ms. Smith called, said she was suffering from pain in her legs. "It's not you, it's the weather," Ms. Smith told her, adding, "It's finding you and jumping into your legs."

Ms. BarShai said that the program has created many "beautiful friendships."

"When you call someone every day, it's a relationship," she added.

Ms. BarShai explained that volunteers are trained before they make calls, and that their most important skill is being good listeners. Every volunteer is asked to commit to a full year of service so that he or she can establish familiarity with call recipients.

Every month the volunteers gather to have lunch and talk about different topics, like how to deal with depression and loss. Ms. BarShai said the program is growing, as larger Bronx senior organizations add the program to their list of services.

Ms. Smith said that even for her as a volunteer the program has helped in many ways. "It begins to make you think about your own life and old age and who I'm going to talk with. I've learned a lot about myself," she said.

For Ms. Venable the program is nothing short of a lifeline. "If I don't talk with them, I miss them because they're all I have in my life," she said. "I don't have any other friends."

"I just love these people," she added.

This is part of the December 27, 2007 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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