The Burnaby Seniors Outreach Services Society celebrated on July 24 as another group of volunteers have completed training to become peer counsellors.
The six volunteers will spend the next year offering local seniors struggling with life altering-changes free, one-on-one confidential help.
"It adds to our core of volunteers that do really important work with seniors in the community," said Linda Comba, a program director with the society.
The 54-hour training course for the society's peer counselling program teaches volunteers listening, communication and counselling skills, and
according to Comba, the training is on par with an introductory college-level course. In addition to basic counselling, volunteers also learn about substance abuse, suicide, grief and loss. Once training is complete, the society asks volunteers to stay with the program for a year to meet with seniors once a week for an hour-long counselling session, but the schedule is flexible.
Typical problems seniors may be facing include the loss of a spouse, isolation, feeling directionless in retirement or a major health change.
According to Comba, sessions with the society's peer counsellors are more than friendly visits, as the person receiving help has to want to make some kind of change in his or her life, and the counsellor is there to offer confidential, non-judgmental help in doing so.
"It provides people with emotional support to carry on. For many seniors, there's no solving the problem, it's managing the problem so the quality of life is optimal," Comba said.
The next training session starts this fall. Volunteers don't need to a professional counselling background to help, Comba added. To sign up, or for more information, call 604-291-2258 or email [email protected].
For more information on the society, visit www.bsoss.org.
