Key takeaways
- Care-home residents can go weeks without a visitor from outside; regular befriending changes that.
- Home to Home Calls provides daily telephone befriending; AgeTrust is adding face-to-face visits and help navigating support.
- AgeTrust funds free places so nobody misses out because they cannot pay.
Isolation and loneliness remain an enormous challenge for older people, and nowhere more so than in care homes, where a resident can go weeks without a visitor from outside.
What does the partnership involve?
Home to Home Calls has shown how effective telephone befriending can be: the same friendly voice, at the same time, every day. We are building on that with face-to-face visits and help navigating health, social care and wellbeing support, with a particular focus on care homes.
Is there a cost?
Home to Home Calls asks for a small donation for its service. AgeTrust will also fund a level of free befriending for people who cannot pay, so that nobody misses out. Read more about how befriending works.
Sources and further reading
The AgeTrust team
Befriending, Men in Sheds and PIP support
AgeTrust (charity no. 1124019) has worked on older people's health and loneliness since its founding, including national programmes with the NHS and the Department of Health. Articles are reviewed by the team and updated when guidance changes.
