The service, "Good Morning, Inishowen," provides phone calls by trained volunteers to the homes of older people who are Inishowen residents. Candidates for the free service do not need to either be living alone or incapacitated by illness in order to be eligible -- it is available to anyone over 65 who has a telephone and who wishes to receive a phone call between the hours of 9.15 a.m. and 1 p.m.

"The main aim of our telephone calls is to ensure that the person is safe and well," said Anne Gill, Project Coordinator. "The second aim is to help with any information or inquiries. You wouldn't ask about that every day, but as it comes up, we would help with any information that people request. And the third reason for our phone call is basically as a social call. There are some people who like a call one day a week, and others who request a call four days each week. That's determined by the older people themselves."

So successful has the programme been since it started in August 2006 that it opened an outreach centre in Gortahork in December 2007 to offer "Maidin Mhaith, Thair Thuaidh" to the Donegal North West area, and currently serves approximately 150 residents between the two areas. Now plans are afoot to expand the service even further -- to South West Donegal early this Autumn from an office in Donegal Town, and to East Donegal from the Buncrana office for the time being.

As a result, a big push is on to recruit new volunteers who can offer two hours per week of their time to make the calls. "Basically, the work involves ringing people up, identifying yourself, and asking 'How are you?'" Anne said. "After that, we let the client direct the conversation, with some chatting for 10 to 15 minutes and others saying 'I'm fine, thanks for the call, cheerio!' It depends on the client and on who's ringing -- some might have interests in common with one another, such as bingo, cards, gardening, or whatever. There's no pressure, there's no stress, and that's what volunteers say appeals to them. They advise me of any concerns or issues that arise, and I take them from there."

Anne said that another perk provided to volunteers is total understanding if they need to cancel their shift for any reason. "One of the things volunteers sometimes say is that in previous volunteer positions they had felt sort of stuck, and sometimes might feel they were leaving others in the lurch if they were unable to attend for whatever reason," she said. "One of the policies of this service is that it's my responsibility, not yours. If you can't show up for a shift, there's always a get-out clause. That's why I like to have a good pool of volunteers to call upon."

Growing demand

The Good Morning service currently has between 35 and 40 volunteers who work out of its offices in Buncrana and Gortahork, and another half-dozen or so set to start in Donegal Town when that branch starts this Autumn.