12:00a.m. 5th October 2008

| By Damian Bathersby

Pauline MacQueen of Buderim on the telephone to ensure the elderly are safe and well.......Photo: John McCutcheon/178417d

Pauline MacQueen starts each day with phone calls to friends.

She has never met any of them but she knows they enjoy hearing from her just as much as she enjoys their brief chats.

And there is a deeper purpose than simply socialising. As a volunteer with the St John Ambulance Silver Cord program, Mrs MacQueen knows that if her friends do not answer her calls it may well mean there is something wrong.

There are 67 other volunteers like Mrs MacQueen on the Sunshine Coast and another 200 across the state.

Their phone calls provide security and friendship for elderly people – some of whom may not talk to another person for the rest of the day.

“That’s not the case with the people I call but, yes, that is sometimes the case with others,” the Buderim woman said.

“Many people in our community are faced with moving into residential care prematurely due to lack of regular support and communication.

“They leave their homes and familiar surroundings because of frailty, geographical or social isolation and lack of family and friends around them.

“Through the Silver Cord Service I ensure my clients are safe and well by phoning them daily as a security measure. I offer them friendship and assurance.

“These telephone calls not only save lives, they enable the elderly or disabled to stay in their homes and lead independent lives.”

And it is a two-way street. Mrs MacQueen admits she gets almost as much out of the program as her “friends”.

 “I feel good about it,”she said. “We all need to be wanted and feel useful ... an important little cog in things.”

When she heard about the Silver Cord Service she did not need convincing of the benefits because her elderly mother was involved in a similar program interstate.

While she has never met the people she calls each day – it’s not encouraged under the program – she is friends with each of them.

“Äfter a while you get to know them and their lifestyle. You hear all about their families and lives.

“It’s wonderful to put something back into the community ... more importantly it’s wonderful knowing you’ve made a friend.”