Kia ora and welcome to this edition of The Old Times. What a couple of weeks it's been; President Donald Trump refuses to concede, Joe Biden's dogs will be the first rescue dogs to reside in the White House, and back home, Napier is dealing with the aftermath of a 1 in 150 year storm! Let's hope things start to calm down and we can begin to enjoy the start of summer. Our planned trip to the Arboretum on Friday has been changed to the Waiwhakareke Natural Heritage Park. This is a world class ecological island in an urban environment and an award-winning, inter-generational ecological 65.5ha restoration project with access off Brymer and Baverstock Roads. Our end of year function will be held on Friday 4th December 2020 from 10am - noon. If you would like to join us, email enquiries@ageconcern.gen.nz or phone 07 838 2266 to reserve your place as we're limited to 120. If you have any dietary requirements, please let us know. This is our thank you to you, therefore no charge. Best wishes
Lucy Willard Leader Volunteer Services
Many of our older population experienced fear and anxiety when Covid-19 arrived in New Zealand. One of them was Maggie Wyse, a Resident at Park Lane Retirement Village in Christchurch. It brought up painful memories of her childhood in Scotland.
“I felt as if I was choking, I just cried and cried and cried. I just didn’t know what to do with myself," the 79-year-old said.
Maggie was born during the Second World War.
“I lived through bombing, it was terrible. I would hate to think of all you young ones to die having to live through another war, it is not good.”
Then she got polio aged 12, and was put in an iron lung twice, once for 6 months.
“I kept crying 'I want my mum I want my mum.' "But I couldn't see my mum cause she wasn't allowed in.”
So, when her retirement village went into lockdown, it felt like déjà vu.
“I'd been through it, I know what it was like, to be in that situation. You're stuck somewhere where you can't get out, you don't know what to do," she said. “You felt as if this world's going to stop and everyone's going to fall off."
So Maggie began helping out. Read more
Working with Liverpool City Council, around 100 volunteers aged 65 and over will receive regular wellbeing visits from their local postman or woman. The service aims to help individuals access assistance at the earliest opportunity if necessary. This might include offering support to help them make simple changes to stay healthy or putting them in touch with an activity or group in their area.
Royal Mail’s postmen and women are ideally placed to deliver the trial because of the unique role they play in their communities, and the high levels of trust customers have in them. Through its Universal Service network, Royal Mail connects customers companies and communities across the UK. It is the only delivery Company that can visit over 30 million addresses across the UK, six-days-a-week.
How the trial works
The local authority aims to have up to 100 individuals in Liverpool taking part in the trial, which is voluntary and free of charge for participants. The Council will also be responsible for providing any assistance to those individuals if a need is identified. Read more
ASB is set to close 23 branches nationwide, with a further 13 branches permanently moving to reduced hours.
The branches will close in February.
The move will see closures across Auckland, Wellington and some other centres. Reduced hours mainly affect regional communities such as Dargaville, Masterton and Ashburton.
ASB’s executive general manager for retail banking, Craig Sims, said the pandemic had accelerated a customer behaviour trend that was already well under way.
On Wednesday, Facebook took down a video posted on President Trump’s official page in which he falsely claimed that children were “almost immune” to the coronavirus. The video, which violated Facebook’s policies specifically on health misinformation around the coronavirus, had been viewed nearly half a million times before it was removed. Twitter, likewise, blocked a tweet with the same video that was posted by the Trump campaign’s account.
Well before the coronavirus outbreak, fake news spread rapidly on social media platforms. The consequences of misinformation are even more deadly in a pandemic. Some false information comes from legitimate sources, making it harder to separate fact from fiction. And it’s particularly dangerous for older users of social media, who are also at the greatest risk of dying from the virus. Read more
Contact Age Concern Hamilton
Phone: 07 838 226
Open Mon - Fri 8:30am - 3:00pm P. 07 838 2266 F. 07 838 2268
email: enquiries@ageconcern.gen.nz
Celebrating Age Centre 30 Victoria Street Hamilton 3204