Call companion training

Training 1: Introduction

Call companions are volunteers who provide support and companionship to our older people by regular one-to-one phone contact. Through the calls, our volunteers help to provide connection and friendship to someone feeling socially or emotionally lonely.

It’s important in general to remember that these phone calls may be the older person’s only social interaction of the week. You may be talking to them about practical concerns but there will also be time to talk about how they are feeling, or things they may be worried about. Telephone support is a rewarding and worthwhile service to offer. For a small amount of your free time per week, you can bring a real comfort to an older person who may be lonely, isolated, or sad. 

A good call companion will be interested in other people, a good listener, honest, trustworthy, and reliable. Friendliness and warmth are also essential to allow you to build a relationship with the older person.  

Remember too that the older person is an active and equal participant in this relationship and a big part of your role as a call companion will be to listen and not dominate the conversation.  

It is important also to remember the limits of telephone befriending and to recognise its goal and purpose. Call companions are there to provide (and maintain) social contact and perhaps signpost older people to national services where appropriate, details available in the resources section. It is not your role to solve all the problems an older person may have. Be aware that supporting an older person in this way might not always be easy and can be stressful or emotionally challenging. It is therefore important that you know you are not expected to ‘fix’ all the problems of the person you are speaking to and that you know you can always talk to Re-engage for support in any difficulties. 

Confidentiality 

Please respect the older person’s right to privacy, and don’t share details of what they’ve told you (in particular their health issues or things they are worried about) with family or friends.  

You can however always share information with the Re-engage team. Be aware that the older person can’t ask you not to tell the organisation about something, and you shouldn’t promise this. Contact the Re-engage team immediately via the incident and concern form if you hear anything from the older person that is a safety concern or of any risk to wellbeing. There is more information on these issues in your Safeguarding training.  

Obstacles to listening 

When you’re making calls to the older person it’s helpful to be aware of any obstacles to listening that might exist for you.  

These can be practical obstacles – it might be too noisy where you are, or too hot or cold, it might be as simple as you not being comfortable where you’re sitting. These things can take your focus away from listening to your older person, so before you make the call it’s worth making sure the environment you’re sitting in isn’t distracting or uncomfortable for you. 

There can also be other factors that can take your focus away from listening to the older person. It might be that you yourself are having a hard day or are going through a difficult time. This can make it challenging to fully focus on the conversation.  

Time can also be a factor. If you’ve allowed 30 minutes for the call and you know you need to be somewhere else after 30 minutes you will find it hard to focus on what the older person is saying as that time comes to an end.  

So before making a call to an older person, make sure that you’ve allowed plenty of time, and try to make a conscious effort to put aside anything else that’s on your mind for the duration of that conversation so that you can fully focus on what your older person is saying. 

Self-reflection 

Before going through the rest of the training, think about what you are hoping to get from the training, and write down any questions or concerns you might have about the call companion role. As you go through the training, take note of where any of these questions are answered, and concerns addressed. You will have an opportunity to send any outstanding questions to us at the end of the training.