Not for profit charity Age Concern say loneliness is one of the top four most pressing concerns for older people, among income, health care and ageist attitudes. It’s also one thing volunteers have the power to help with – through the Age Concern Accredited Visiting Service (AVS), which provides 70,000 visits a year to older people seeking company.
Monica Robinson is the AVS programme coordinator for Wellington.
“Anything that can be done to alleviate loneliness, even to a small extent, is a positive,” she says.
Robinson’s role entails meeting with older clients and volunteers, and then matching up the personalities she thinks will suit.  
“It’s guesswork combined with experience, and funny things happen. I connected a 97-year-old man with a young woman based on a sense that they’d work well together, and they hadn’t been talking five minutes when they found they had a mutual interest in music. I’m constantly amazed at what happens when I connect people up,” she says.
Robinson has 60 Wellington volunteers on her books at the moment – but for the 25 elderly people waiting to be matched with a companion, there are only ten volunteers currently in training.
“We need volunteers from all areas, but especially Newtown and Kilbirnie, where we get a lot of referrals from city housing and housing NZ homes.”
AVS reports high satisfaction from elderly using the service, 90% saying they feel happier for their visits, and even higher rates of volunteer satisfaction. 100% of respondents from their last survey said they enjoy their role, and 96% that they benefit from the visits themselves.
“Some come because their own lives are in a lot of stress and by reaching out to others they’re often helping themselves… they start to realise the wisdom an older person has can be quite helpful.”
Common activities include playing cards, shopping, going on trips in the car and chatting – which seems a lovely way to help out those who need it.