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Phyllida Law |
Actress calls for a return of school visits to elderly
Scheme ‘tackled loneliness of old age’
PHYLLIDA Law, the West Hampstead actress and Age Concern patron, has called for a return to the days when schoolchildren used to visit the elderly.
Ms Law, mother to actresses Emma and Sophie Thompson, said while her daughters were teenagers at Camden School for Girls they took part in a scheme that involved them visiting elderly people.
Ms Law said: “They went in as mates and did it in twos or threes, so that if someone wasn’t able to go they were covered. There was a clutch of them and they were very successful.”
She said on one occasion one of her daughters called an ambulance when the elderly man she had befriended was taken ill during her visit.
Ms Law, who was at the Age Concern AGM held at the Town Hall on Thursday, added: “People should adopt an elderly person on a regular basis. Schools should be involved.”
She said the visits, which were called School Taskforce, were standard practice at the Sandall Road school in the 1970s and early 1980s when her daughters were students there, and were a good weapon against the loneliness of old age.
“It would be nice if the scheme could be reignited,” she said.
“Sometimes you’re in a road with wonderful neighbours and sometimes you’re not. It can be very lonely – if you’re very old most of your friends are dead. It’s isolating to a degree.” |
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