YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Denise Marcelt regularly visits two elderly people. 

One is an old friend who used to be a neighbor but has since moved away. The other is a new friend she adopted through the Golden Friends program.

Golden Friends helps Columbiana County housebound residents feel less lonely and isolated by pairing them with someone who can check in with a visit at least twice monthly.

“The point is companionship,” says Paige Fortner, project manager for Golden Friends. “So it’s different than a lot of the in-home care, nonskilled care [services] that do cleaning or laundry. … It’s strictly for companionship and just someone to hang out with, a friend.”

That could mean something different for each person – a long conversation or participating together in hobbies like putting together a puzzle or crafting with supplies covered by grant money.

Marcelt says she and her Golden Friend, Anita, hit it off right away. Anita once worked for NASA and tells Marcelt “fascinating” stories about her years working for the shuttle program in Texas. They both crochet, so Marcelt shared her knowledge of how to make granny squares.

“Sometimes I’ll take zucchini bread or cheese or something I might have, or flowers,” Marcelt says. “She’s bought us ice cream sometimes.”

In between visits, Marcelt says they text each other, just to check in. Anita might send a comment about something she saw on TV, and Marcelt shared some pictures from her recent trip to Texas.

Golden Friends’ Origins

Golden Friends came from the Senior Support Action Group. Both are services helping elderly shut-ins get the care they need.

Senior Support Action Group started because of the pandemic, according to Fortner, who also serves as the SSAG program manager. In Columbiana and Mahoning counties, SSAG delivers food to shut-in seniors. And in Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties, the same program provides transportation to medical appointments or the grocery store. 

SSAG, which provides services to about 400 people a year, also provides Phone Pals, a program where volunteers call just to check in with someone.

“With Golden Friends, what happened was we realized people wanted more than just a phone call,” Fortner says.

By pairing volunteers registered through AmeriCorps’ Retired Senior Volunteer Program with a homebound senior, Golden Friends provides a friendly visitor who stops in at least twice a month for at least an hour. Fortner says because the volunteers are 55 and older, they often relate well to the homebound seniors served by the program, who are in the same age group.

When someone is recommended for the program, Fortner says she first speaks with the person joining Golden Friends and completes a home safety assessment, checking for broken stairs, pets or smoking, so the RSVP volunteer knows what to expect. 

When a pairing is made, Fortner goes along the first time to introduce them and helps get the conversation started, nudging them to share a little bit about themselves.

The friendship grows from there.

Fortner says the volunteers also gain from the program. 

“I’ve heard nothing but positive feedback from them,” Fortner says of the volunteers. “Really, they say they stay for hours and listen and tell stories. It definitely benefits the volunteer just as much.”

And rarely are volunteers doing just the minimum. They find additional ways to help their Golden Friends.

For instance, Fortner said one homebound person lives less than three minutes from a park but had no way to get there. The volunteer felt comfortable giving them a short ride so they could take a walk together.

Another volunteer recognized during a visit that their Golden Friend needed a service but was unaware it even existed. The volunteer asked Fortner to help find the referral to get them the service.

“It’s just another person, another advocate and a friend,” Fortner says. “I think a lot of people just stay in their homes and keep to themselves and have their needs that you don’t know about.”

Preventing Suicide

Seniors make up 16.8% of the U.S. population but account for about 22% of the suicides, according to statistics released earlier this year by the National Council on Aging. Men 75 and older are at greatest risk. 

The same report noted that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics show U.S. suicide rates reached a historic high in 2022, and older Americans, those 65 and older, rose faster than all others, climbing by 8.1%.

One of the key contributors was loneliness.

According to the National Institute on Aging, loneliness is the distressing feeling of being alone or separated, while social isolation is the lack of social contacts and few people to interact with regularly.

A spouse or close friends dies. Transportation is no longer available to go to the places where they used to have connections. Families are now spread across the country. Or, even if they live nearby, adult children may become too busy with their own families for regular visits.

Through the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, the registered volunteers receive training and volunteer insurance. They learn what Fortner calls Question Persuade Refer, which helps them recognize someone in crisis and open up a conversation about suicide. Fortner recognizes it can be a difficult, uncomfortable topic, but it’s an important lifesaving one as well.

“And there’s a lot of misconceptions, like asking someone if they’re suicidal is going to make them suicidal,” Fortner says. “That’s just not the case. There are little things that we can talk about and make it not more normal, but in a sense lower the stigma a bit around suicide.”

Marcelt says while she and Anita have a lot to talk about, if a volunteer met a new person, the training would come in handy to determine if they were depressed or just quiet. Being stuck at home and waiting for someone to drop in would be difficult for her, Marcelt adds.

“I’m so used to being able to just go where I want to go, get in the car and do whatever I want to do,” Marcelt says. “I think to myself, if I had to be at the house, stay in the house, couldn’t go anywhere and had to be at the mercy of people bringing me things or taking me somewhere … I just think I would absolutely not be happy.”

The program is serving six or seven people in Columbiana County, providing meaningful connections and emotional support. Fortner likes to match people near each other to facilitate easy visits. 

Finding the volunteers and the people in need of the service is difficult.

“I hope we grow it even more, because I’m not sure it’s reaching all the people it needs to,” Fortner says.

Golden Friends is being funded for a year through a grant from the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation and the Jerry Williams Memorial Fund, but Fortner is looking for a way to expand the program’s reach and longevity.

Marcelt says she would encourage anyone interested in volunteering to do so. She has spoken to her book club group about Golden Friends and how she has benefited from her new friendship.

“If they know somebody who can’t get out that would like to have a friend come over, or if they would like to be that friend, it’s very rewarding on both ends, I think,” Marcelt says.

Anyone interested in volunteering for the program or who knows someone in Columbiana County who would benefit from the services of Golden Friends should call 330 424 7877, ext. 2, and leave a message.

Pictured at top: Paige Fortner is the project manager for Golden Friends.