Red Cross promotes telephone service

The Red Cross is promoting a telephone safety service to people of the Peninsula.

The service, called Telecross, is free and is provided by the Australian Red Cross all year round.

NSW Telecross coordinator Ms Donna Fouche said that about 40 per cent of Telecross clients on the Central Coast were Peninsula residents but that many Peninsula residents were unaware of the Telecross service.

The service provides a short phone call every morning between eight and nine o'clock.

Ms Fouche said: "Many of the socially isolated clients welcome the opportunity to chat.

"The service is also a security blanket.

"If there is no answer, a second call is made.

"If there is still no response, an emergency check procedure is initiated by the Red Cross and assistance arranged."

Ms Fouche said: "Anyone living alone, who can benefit from a daily phone call to combat his or her isolation, is welcome to apply.

"They may be people who live alone and are disabled, ill, isolated, frail, aged, or medically at risk.

"Telecross assesses each person's circumstances before they are accepted into the program.

"They usually live alone and have little or no support from their family or community services.

"They usually suffer isolation as a result of age or a medical condition.

"A Telecross co-ordinator visits the person in their home and talks them through the process, how it works and what they have to do.

"There must be two other people - neighbours, relatives or friends in the vicinity - who have a set of (the client's) keys and are prepared to respond if the Telecross client doesn't answer their phone.

"The Red Cross is committed to making sure everybody feels they are an important part of our society."

Telecross can be provided on a temporary basis when, for example, a carer is away.

Referrals to the service may be taken from various sources such as health professionals, relatives, and friends and individuals may refer themselves.

If it is not a self-referral, Telecross will determine if the person wants the service.

Ms Fouche said that the Telecross service represents peace of mind for isolated people and their worried friends or distant family.

To apply for the service, contact the Telecross coordinator on 4324 3411.

Con Orfanos, press release, August 18