Seniors helping seniors

By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Nov. 1, 2003

One of Burnaby's most successful volunteer programs for helping seniors in crisis is back on track and bigger than ever this fall, after it nearly folded two years ago.

A total of nine new senior peer counsellors have graduated from the training program offered by the Burnaby Seniors Outreach Services Society, and now the new volunteers are ready to start expanding their service.

"This program is absolutely essential - it's preventative medicine," said Belle Smith, assistant co-ordinator with BSOSS, a small non-profit society that works out of the Heights Resource Centre in North Burnaby.

"By interacting with seniors, we help to keep them away from doctors and the waiting rooms," Smith said.

And not only is the program back up and running, it is now available in nine languages so the service can be offered to seniors from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds.

Today, in addition to having counsellors who speak English, the program has trained peer counsellors who can speak Hindi, Punjabi, Swahili, Dari (Afghani), Dutch, Cantonese, Japan-ese, Gujarati, Kutchi and Urdu.

The new peer counsellors are specially trained to help seniors deal with any kind of trauma or change in their lives, said Smith.

"We try to support seniors emotionally whenever they go through periods of loneliness or isolation or loss," said Smith. "And when we say loss, it could be anything - the loss of a home, the loss of family, whether the kids have moved away or grown up, or any of those kinds of things."

The idea behind peer counselling is simple - the unique issues and problems which confounds seniors are best understand by another senior.

Based on that principle, volunteers in the senior peer counselling program must be over the age of 55, and be prepared to register in very intensive, but free, training program to learn the skills needed for listening and helping other seniors.

The volunteer training program, which is based on the writings of Harvard medical professor Victor Frankel and the 'person-centred therapy' model of Carl Rogers, takes 54 hours to complete.

With the recent class of senior graduates, there are now 18 fully trained senior peer counsellors available for help in Burnaby, Smith said.

Any senior who feels they are in crisis is welcome to call, said Smith.

"Any senior can call us," Smith said. "Say a family member is being financially abusive or verbally abusive. What does a senior do? They should call us. if you've got nobody to talk to, and you're told your rent us going up and in you're in an absolute tizzy, then call."

While the peer counsellors themselves can only provide a sympathetic and supportive ear, they can provide referrals to such services as housing and assisted living programs, legal aid services or other needed resources. "Our counsellors are in fact selected for their understanding and life experiences," Smith said. "They are non judgmental, because in most cases, they've been there themselves. We don't give advice, but we help people find their own solutions."

With the revitalization of the peer counselling program now complete, BSOSS is now setting its sights on restarting some of the other useful programs it used to offer from its north Burnaby offices such as the seniors' writing group and On Your Own Club for newly single seniors.

New volunteers and cash donations are always needed. The society,, which has an annual budget of about $20,000 operates mostly on the services of volunteer labour, its bingo revenue, donations from the public plus a financial grant and rent subsidy from the City of Burnaby.

A good way to get involved is to join the society's annual general meeting, which will be held in early December.

For more information on the senior peer counsellor program, or to make a donation to BSOSS, contact the society at 604-291-2258.