Seniors helping seniors focus of new mental health program in Sudbury

A new program in Sudbury has older adults being trained to support other older adults experiencing mental health issues.

They're called peer support workers but it boils down to older adults who want to help by talking with and listening to other older adults over age 55 who may be facing emotional challenges and social isolation.

It's a unique pilot program offered by NISA and funded by Health Canada.

NISA stands for Northern Initiative for Social Action.

Shirley Rajotte is one of three senior peer support workers who has been trained for the program. 

She says a lot of older adults are still under the assumption that mental illness is a stigma, and it's not something that was talked about when they were young. 

"If you had mental illness, depression, anxiety . . . you were crazy," she said. "What we want them to find out is that it's okay not to be okay," she added.

"The reason I do this is because I have lived experience.I've been there," she explained. 

Rajotte says her mental illness started early in life although back then she didn't understand what it was.

She went through two abusive marriages, suffered the loss of her parents, and then woke up one morning, started crying, and couldn't stop. 

Rajotte stresses that "there's always hope and sometimes you just need somebody to talk to," she said. 

Rajotte thinks older adults feel more comfortable talking to an older peer support worker because they're experiencing similar things as they age -- such as loss, physical limitations, and facing one's own mortality.

She adds that loneliness, isolation, and grief can be huge problems for older people who are losing their support networks. 

Once an older adult is connected through NISA with a senior peer support worker like Rajotte, she says that her role is basically to talk. 

"We try and find out where they're at, what it is that they're dealing with," she said. "We talk to them about some of our experiences and some of the things that we've been through," she added. 

Those conversations, says Rajotte, can be held in the older adult's own home, at a local coffee shop, or at the NISA office.

For more information about the seniors helping seniors pilot program, contact NISA / Northern Initiative for Social Action by phone at 705.222.NISA (6472) or by email at info@nisa.on.ca.