ParkSide Centre promises to 'break down walls' for seniors

There's a new program at the ParkSide Centre in Sudbury that helps elderly adults stay socially engaged.

It's called ParkSide Centre Without Walls and it aims to provide the same type of interaction for people who can't easily get to the downtown facility.

John Richer, manager of ParkSide, said the program operates like a conference call.

"In that conference could be any number of different programs or topics where people can call in and discuss different issues, or just news of the day," Richer said.

Richer said his strong group of volunteers make the network run and they have been able to adapt to what seniors need.

"When we first started running these calls in February...we had thought that maybe people would be really interested in structured programs," Richer said. "Dealing with things like elder abuse or fraud prevention or things of that nature."

In the end, what participants wanted was social conversation.

"So we call it coffee talk, and run it a couple of times a week," he said. "We also do a sports talk for the people who are sports-minded."

"So really, the participants can choose to talk about whatever is on their mind "

He said the callers bring a wealth of information to the talks.

"There's one person who's on the line who has all this knowledge that they've accrued over a lifetime of working and learning, and they want to impart that knowledge on people and share it with people and and also be able to talk about the things that interest them," Richer said.

"We had another person who I spoke to personally, who hadn't had any social contact with somebody other than their children or their family doctor for over eight years."

Richer said that level of isolation is hard to imagine. 

"If it starts with the loss of a loved one, that mourning can lead into anxiety about being in public places with somebody else," he said. "And if you don't have somebody to bring you out of that house you withdraw, and it's very difficult for you to reintegrate into the community."

Richer said that they typically keep the number of participants on social calls to around 15 and they can use any type of phone. He added that most of the people involved are homebound, in some form. 

"What we've seen so far is the participants have some disability or physical impediment that's keeping them from being more active in the community there," he said. "But we've also had some people who are somewhat isolated geographically."

"So we have we have the ability to accommodate people from really throughout Ontario but we're restricting it to northeastern Ontario, as this program does exist in other areas of the province."