Stories from volunteers and their experiences. . .

1. A senior falls between her bed and the wall of her apartment. She is unable to move. A volunteer shows up on Monday for an assignment with this senior. No response. The volunteer calls the coordinator. The coordinator calls the police to enter the premises as she heads out to the senior’s apartment. The police find her between the bed and the wall, calls 911. EMT arrives. Woman is transported to the hospital. This is the 3rd time she fell in a week.

2. An office volunteer fails to show up on her assigned day to work in the office. The coordinator calls the woman at home. No response, tries several times. He then goes to the apartment to check on her. He finds her car in the parking stall and seeks out the manager with no success. He calls the property management of the facility. He would go to the apartment to open the door, would take about half an hour. He arrives, opens the door and finds the volunteer on the floor. 911 called, she was transported to the hospital.

3. A retired senior gentleman calls and asked for friendly telephone calls or wellness checks on a daily basis at a specific time. He has serious health problems and is homebound. Reason: He was worried about who will take care of his dog if he passes in the night.

4. An elderly senior with many difficulties that causes her to be homebound. She has assistance from one of the Neighbor Care Alliance programs for transportation to medical appointments. However, she requires assistance with errands such as grocery shopping and other services that she is not capable of doing. A volunteer agreed to take care of her shopping and went to her home to pick up the list of items needed, took care of the method of payment and was on her way. When the volunteer arrived back to the residence, she found the gate locked and could not reach the senior by phone, knocking or calling out. The volunteer climbed over the fence, crossed the yard and banged on the door until she got a response. The senior, being hard of hearing did not realize that she had locked the gate. The volunteer then proceeded to unload the car and help to put away the purchases.

5. PCOA Intake calls NCA to check if a program is available in the Freedom Park area. There being none, asked if any of the programs would like to service a senior that was in desperate need of Depends and no way to obtain them and no transportation to pick some up at PCOA. There are a few programs that are willing to go beyond their boundaries to help a senior in critical need. A Program Coordinator volunteered to take care of the situation. Another senior helped, a program came through and PCOA and NCA partnered to accomplish this.

6. Homebound and unable to leave her home, a senior called for assistance for grocery shopping. A volunteer arrives at her home to pick up the shopping list and method of payment. The volunteer completes the assignment and delivers the groceries to the senior’s home, helped to unload the items and put them away. The volunteer returns home and gets a call from the senior during his dinner and needs a can opener to open the cans of cat food just purchased. Evidently, she forgot to tell the volunteer that she did not have a can opener and needed the pop open cans of cat food. The volunteer returns with a can opener for the senior and the total round trip was 24 miles, and not a complaint from the volunteer.