Rod Perkins - Selwyn Centres - Reducing social isolation for older people and facilitating connection

1. Selwyn Centres - reducing social isolation
for older people and facilitating connection
from a Christian organisation in a secular society
Rod Perkins PhD
General Manager, Foundation Development and Charitable Activity, The Selwyn
Foundation, Auckland, New Zealand
& Hon Senior Lecturer, School of Population Health, The University of Auckland

3. Outline
• I want to describe our service-
– What we do
– Our people, the guests or recipients of our service
– Our coordinators
• Identify a major challenge services such as ours
are facing and
• Hear from you!

4. Preamble
• In major cities in New Zealand, the Anglican
Church has a city mission or inner-city mission.
Nowadays these institutions concern themselves
with the poor & the homeless. They distribute
food via foodbanks and deal with the
consequences of the neoliberal environment.
• In the past, they also had a particular concern for
the elderly

5. Early beginnings
In 1946 the Auckland City Missioner said the
elderly of Auckland had three main needs-
 A lot needed some degree of care
 Many had a great need for companionship and
more- ‘love’
 Many needed housing, but it was much further
down the scale
He also came to learn that the elderly in Auckland
need a secure future

6. The Development of Day Care
• In 1977 we developed our first day programme at
Selwyn Village. It was called day care and was
thought to be a way of preventing admission into
rest homes (= care homes).
• Eleven years later there were 98 elderly people
enrolled but from 1988 the numbers began to fall.
• In 2003 the Selwyn Foundation began a
partnership with parishes and the Selwyn Centre
model was born

8. Older People
• Socially isolated
•Living in the
community
•Stressed
(personally and as
a care-giver)
Selwyn
Foundation
Ministry
Selwyn funding
Parish
resources
Management
committee
Volunteers
CMDHB
funding
• Parish liaison
coordinator
•Coordinators
•Nursing
•Operation manual
Context Inputs Process
Activity participation
Outputs
Programme
Activities
Selwyn Centres’
Processes
Ongoing
support/advocacy
Transport
Refreshment/
lunch
Meeting
social needs
Outcomes
Guests’
outcomes:
• Reducing isolation
•Increase wellbeing
•Increase ability for
guest to stay in own
home
Organisational
outcome:
• Link agencies and
church
Care-givers’
outcome:
• Reducing stress
What we are trying to do and how

13. Guests

14. Some of our guests

15. Our guests
• Mean Age 79.8yrs
• 79% Female
• 37% Receiving Home Help
• 15% Receiving personal care
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
<65yrs 65-74yrs 75-84yrs >84yrs
Frequency
Guest age groups

16. Guest Living Situation
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Living Alone Living with Others Rest home Unspecified
Frequency

17. Guest: Disability
• 33% have no disability
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Vision Hearing Mobility Medical Cognitive
% of reported disabilities

18. What we do

19. Giving purpose to life
Improved outlook
“Being among people... broadens my outlook, and gives me an
incentive to go out”
I have a purpose to my week”
“I have something to think about for the rest of the week as I am on my
own”
Days to look forward to
“My lifestyle has altered a great deal and I always look forward to my
next visit”
“I just love Mondays, they can’t come quick enough. Getting your glad
rags out and a little bit of lippy makes Mondays just great”
“Just wish there were more Mondays in the week”
Emotional improvement
“I am happier than I used to be with these outside interests”
“I am not so shy and plenty of laughter with everyone”
“It gets me out of the house. I feel much better in myself”

20. Reducing Isolation
“I feel as if I have a new circle of friends”
“I have met a lovely person that has helped me a lot”
“I don’t feel isolated”
“I lost my husband 3 ½ yrs ago I missed the
companionship, which I now have here at the centre”
“It is always nice to meet with new people. Good to meet
people you know when out and about, something I missed
when I moved”
“More phone calls, people to chat to while out shopping..”
“As a stranger in the area, I met new people of my age”

21. Belonging
“Company, with most people being in similar age group
and with similar circumstances”
“Fellowship and friendship, nice to mix with people in own
age group”
“Fellowship and hearing people’s life stories”
“The company of other people, someone to talk over
things with”

22. What guests most enjoy
When asked what they enjoyed the most, all guests identified one thing, many identified more than one

23. Our coordinators

24. Coordinators
• Female
• Older
• Church links
• Length of Service
• Paid 6hrs per session
• Christian Mission –
not a job
•‘Good women’
• Emotionally intelligent
• Christian calling
• Passion for older
people
• Sense of Humour
•Appreciative of other's
contribution
• Respect
• Confident
• Caring and
compassion
• Organisational and
management skills
• Craft skills
• Catering skills
• Leadership
• Marketing and
promotion skills
• Coordinating
activities
•Manage volunteers
• Succession and
planning
• Food
• Promotion
• Financial
management
• Agency liaison
• Member of the
management
committee
Profile Skills Attributes What they do

25. Coordinators’ skills
Hard’ Skills
• First aid knowledge
• Marketing
• Catering
• Caretaking of the
facilities
Soft’ Skills
Management of guests:
 Observation - Participation
 Engender team work
 Making individual connections
 Ensuring all guests’ inclusion
Management of volunteers:
 Leadership skills
 Consistency in process
 Coordination and delegation of tasks
 Support other volunteers
Additional skills:
 Communication skills
 Encouragement
 Think on your feet

26. From small beginnings…..

27. 0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
NumberofCentres Growth of Selwyn Centres by Year

28. Issues to ponder going forward
• New Zealand is a tolerant secular society
• Selwyn is an Anglican charity (and proudly so) &
it wishes to continue to support Selwyn Centres
• The State identifies our work as important, one
health board funds us for providing a ‘day activity
programme’
• Many of our coordinators and their leadership
identify what they are doing as ‘God’s work

29. Some of us believe Selwyn Centres
should exist wherever older people are
living in socially isolated situations
• How should we market ourselves to-
The community?
Corporates?
State funding agencies?