CatholicCare Joins Community Visitors’ Scheme

25 January 2019
An elderly man and a helper are seen at Mass for World Day of the Sick. Image: Diocese of Parramatta.

 

In 2019 CatholicCare Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains (CatholicCare) will begin to participate in the Community Visitors Scheme (CVS) operated by the Commonwealth Government.

The aim of the scheme is to reduce loneliness experienced by many elderly people and help them feel included in their local community. In this scheme volunteers visit people in their homes or visit people who are in residential care.

Last year CatholicCare joined with other NSW based CatholicCares and applied for funding to run the program. Fortunately, the CatholicCare group was successful in a pool of over 300 applications.

Who is eligible?

The CVS website, https://agedcare.health.gov.au/older-people-their-families-and-carers/community-visitors-scheme gives information on the scheme and on who is eligible to receive visits in this program.

The CVS is available to recipients of Australian Government subsidised residential aged care services or Home Care Packages who have been identified by their aged care provider as at risk of isolation or loneliness.

They are people:

  • who do not have regular and reasonably frequent contact with friends or relatives;
  • who do not have contact with friends or relatives on a one on one basis;
  • whose quality of life is not enhanced by the visits they currently receive;
  • who feel very isolated and lonely and would benefit from contact;
  • whose frailty or mobility or communication impairments prevent them from participating in social or leisure opportunities;
  • who are socially isolated or at risk of being socially isolated.

This is the first time CatholicCare joins the program but other CatholicCare organisations have been in it for a long time and are delighted to share their expertise with CatholicCare Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains.

We will post regular updates on our uptake of the scheme as well as calls for volunteers.

For more information, please visit the CatholicCare website – www.ccss.org.au

 

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