New era begins for Castlebar Social Services
The facility provides a wide range of community services seven days of the week, 365 days of the year
THE chief executive officer of Mayo County Council, Kevin Kelly, will perform the official opening of the newly-extended Castlebar Social Services Centre tomorrow (Thursday) November 18, at 3 p.m.
The Minister for Social Protection and Rural and Community Affairs, Heather Humphreys, was originally scheduled to cut the tape at the ceremony but, in line with new government guidelines, she is not in a position to attend at this time.
A significant investment has been made in upgrading the facility and it includes a new lobby area, day room and lift.
Castlebar Social Services was founded in 1973 to care for the older and more vulnerable people of Castlebar and the surrounding areas and they work out of a building donated by the Sisters of Mercy at Castle Street Car Park.
The organisation's responsibilities have now increased enormously with demand for services greater than ever.
Its day-to-day operations are overseen by Deirdre Waldron, manager.
She explained: “The centre provides its services seven days a week, 365 days of the year, and to help us do this we have a 17-seater minibus and a meals on wheels delivery van.
“Our charitable status number is CHY 9885 and we are governed by an 11 member voluntary board of management.
“We are lucky to have approximately 60 volunteers who assist us in providing a variety of services.
“Our services include a day centre of safety and comfort and a general drop in centre for the elderly where they can avail of our restaurant services.
“We provide outreach meals on wheels services to over 120 clients every day, some of who reside as far as 20 miles from our centre, at a cost of €5 for a three-course meal.
“We also offer a basic laundry service and a free community bus service two days per week by our own private bus and a chiropody service with a clinic every six weeks or as needed in our centre.
“We facilitate GP visits, hairdresser appointments and other medical and social requirements for our clients.
“In good weather, we provide social outings by taking them on scenic tours.
"During the winter periods we organise special attentive supports to the elderly, such as advice from visiting state agencies and artistic and recreational activities such as art classes, music, dance and gentle aerobics.
“We provide security devices for the homes of the elderly such as pendant alarm and message in a bottle medical alert service.
“From our centre we run a telephone befriending service free of charge five days per week to the elderly.
“This is serviced by trained volunteers with the support of the HSE West. This service is found to be invaluable to the elderly clients who receive the service and anyone can avail of a call.
“We have been running this service since 2008 and it was so successful that ALONE replicated our service and have rolled it out nationwide.
“We work closely with the Alzheimer Society of Ireland and provide meals on wheels to the local daycare respite home in Castlebar.
“Our service is found to be of immense value to the older people and is convenient to them in many ways. The service is available to both rural and urban areas of the Castlebar and surrounding areas.
“We take students from third-level colleges, level 5 courses and transition year students on work placement and this has proven to be a hugely formative and an educationally rich experience for students.
“We also welcome students who wish to volunteer with us on a personal basis to enhance their life experiences. The older people and students benefit greatly from this interaction and have found it to be a very enjoyable and worthwhile time.”
Deirdre continued: “We are so delighted to have completed renovations to our premises, which includes lift access to the upper floors, new foyer and day room, with the assistance of a grant from Leader and it re-opened to the public on September 1 last.
“We also receive wonderful ongoing support from Pobal's community services programme, TUS, and the Rural Social Scheme in respect of staff support.
“While our premises were closed for 18 months due to Covid restrictions, we were busier than ever with our meals on wheels service, which exceeded 300 daily during the first few months of 2019.
"We also provided pension collections, shopping, medication and other pick-ups for the elderly who were cocooning and with our telephone befriending service we were checking in daily on the elderly who required assistance.
“Covid has been a lonely and frightening time for many people so we were delighted to be able to help them. We really felt the goodwill of the people of Castlebar during this time.
“We were inundated with offers of help, including from members of Castlebar Mitchels GAA Club, who were available to help daily, and the kindness shown to the elderly of our community was heart-warming.
“A lot of our volunteers had to cocoon themselves and some are now back, which is wonderful, but we also recruited a great group of volunteers who have stayed on with us.
“There is no question the Castlebar community stepped up and proved what a fabulous community we are and showed the goodness that came out of a very sad and difficult time.
“Now we are looking forward with positivity and enthusiasm and see the opening of our new facilities as the beginning of a new era.”
Key services at Castlebar Social Services Centre
Meals on wheels
A typical meal provided to a participant consists of a starter of soup, main course and dessert. All our meals are prepared in-house, and consist of the highest quality ingredients, with all our meals being nutritionally beneficial. If you would like to avail of our meals on wheels service you can apply online or call us on (094) 9021378.
Day Care services
A bus service to the centre for day services, which include a three-course lunch and activities on site such as bingo, music, arts and crafts, yoga, computer classes with one on one with students on placement, is available.
During the summer months they offer day trips to local amenities and beach. You are then dropped home to your door in the evening.
Befriending Mayo
Do you sometimes worry about being alone in your home? Would you like a friendly call every week to check that you are OK? If so, please contact Befriending Mayo.
A trained volunteer will phone you weekly to make sure that you are ok and have a friendly chat. This service is free of charge. It is a secure, confidential service which is run by Castlebar Voluntary Social Services with the support of the HSE.
To avail of this or any other services you can apply online or contact Deirdre on (094) 9021378.
Castlebar cakes
At Castlebar Voluntary Social Services, they run a home-style bakery that supplies quality, traditional baked goods to the local community.
Staff make custom, novelty and personalised birthday, communion, confirmation and christening cakes to order. They also produce scones, apple tarts, brown bread, banana bread, lemon drizzle cakes and bakewell tarts.
These delicious treats are supplied to many local shops and serve to help maintain the quality service that CVSS provides.
Should you be interested in ordering a custom made cake, or stocking our authentic home baking in your shop, get in contact at (094) 9021378.
Pendant alarms
Senior Alert pendant alarms are available for senior citizens over 65.
They are personal monitored alarms to help the elderly continue to live securely in their homes with confidence, independence and peace of mind. If you have a landline telephone the only charge you will incur will be a €60 annual monitoring fee which is now covered by grant and free for the first year.
You will be invoiced annually from the second year onward. If you do not have a landline the fee for a mobile is €60 for the first year and €120 from second year onward.
For more information get in touch with Deirdre on (094) 9021378.
Message in a bottle
The bottle contains a medical alert form that includes all the important information that services would need to help you in case of emergency.
How can the Message in a bottle help?
The bottle can help by making sure emergency services have access to important information such as your medical conditions, any allergies you might have, who they should get in touch with and if you are a carer for someone or have a pet.
This means emergency services can, for example, take action more quickly, understand what medication you can/cannot be given and get in touch with your next of kin.
Laundry services
Basic laundry service is provided for older people who are unable to do this for a period of time.
Home helps have been assisting with this with dropping and collecting laundry.