Supplied Content
Auckland, April 27, 2020
Auckland Council Libraries staff have made around 15,000 welfare calls to over-70-year-olds living alone over the past fortnight as part of the council and Auckland Emergency Management’s COVID-19 response, Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has said.
“We made the calls to older people living alone to ensure that the most isolated were not facing problems with the lockdown that no one knew about. In fact, most of the people we contacted were doing reasonably well, although loneliness was a factor with some people, “ he said.
Mr Goff said that most people were happy to get a call and enjoyed having a chat.
Only 388 people called had specific problems for which they needed help.
Food and service delivery
Some were helped by delivered a food package, others were referred to the Ministry of Social Development for help with income support, and some we were able to refer to other agencies such as Healthline or Age Concern.
“A lady said that she was waiting for our call because we had rung her friend the previous day and she had hoped she wasn’t going to miss out. An elderly Chaplain said that she was grateful for our call but was busy herself writing to 42 older members of her congregation to see how they were, and a lady who had turned 101 the previous week thanked us for the call, which she said helped extend her birthday celebrations, Mr Goff said.
“It was great to see most of our seniors are coping well. I want to thank the 70 Auckland Libraries staff who volunteered their time to make these calls and were enthusiastic about helping out. With their reputation for friendliness and great interpersonal skills, we could not have asked for a better group to undertake this task,” he added.
Impressive numbers
Between April 7, 2020 and April 21, 2020, the Libraries staff made 15,000 calls, with 388 people needing either financial support or an essential food parcel from the food distribution centre set up by council’s Auckland Emergency Management.
The greatest number of calls placed in one day was 3000 calls, on April 16, 2020.
Auckland Council’s Head of Community Libraries North & West, Darryl Soljan said “This has been a magnificent effort by the library team. And one I know they have found rewarding and humbling.
Good listeners
They have really enjoyed listening to the stories and making a connection with people who were isolated. Many of the team have expressed their pride in working for an organisation that cares for its community. And they loved being able to be of use, even though our libraries are closed during level 4 and level 3 of the COVID-19 lockdown.”
“Giving our time to the community has been really powerful, not only for achieving real benefit to those we spoke with but also to be thanked so much for something so simple as a phone call,” he said.
