A local senior reads a letter provided through the Virtual Pen Pal Program (photo courtesy of Hope McNally)

By Liam Verster

Letters to the Elderly

Local seniors in isolation are receiving letters through the Virtual Pen Pal Program

Mar 21, 2020 | 6:00 AM

A Virtual Pen Pal Program is providing seniors in the Peace who are confined to long term care facilities with a chance to socialize with people, through written letters.

The program was launched on Tuesday by Hope McNally, the Program Manager for the Grande Prairie Palliative Care Society. A call for volunteers was launched, and McNally says they’ve had a lot of response from the community.

“The first day, we shared out 27 letters, and we thought ‘Oh boy, we’re really doing good.’ And then the second day it was, I think, 140 letters. Like 140 seniors received letters. And [Thursday], I think we were pushing 500.”

She says the letters can be shared with multiple seniors, and the Virtual Pen Pal Program is now serving multiple long term care facilities.

“We already have the Spirit River long term care residents receiving letters, we have Fairview long term care residents receiving letters. We have residents in the care centre in Grande Prairie receiving letters. Lakeview came on board [Thursday], and they have 180 residents that are interested in the program, or could benefit from the program.”

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McNally says because they are at a high risk of contracting and falling victim to illness, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, she has to screen and re-write the letters, whether they’re handwritten, print-outs, or scanned copies. The facilities then print the letters, put them in envelopes, address them to a resident, and deliver them. By doing this, there is no risk of cross-contamination, and multiple copies of the same letter can be delivered to different facilities.

The seniors are given the opportunity to write back to their Virtual Pen Pal, though because they are high risk, the same screening and re-writing protocols have to be put in place, and the letter is re-written and sent to the individual.

“We already have one senior wanting to write back, and they picked the specific lady that they wanted to write back to. They will write their letter, the staff in the facility will either scan it, or they have the option of taking a picture of it one page at a time, and send it to me. Then I will send it back to the lady who wrote the letter.”

She says this program is really nice for the seniors, as they grew up writing letters, and many of them would have been involved in a pen pal program when they were a kid in school.

Along with it being a nice gesture, McNally says there are also mental health benefits.

“A big thing that we talk about when we work with people at end of life, is getting them to life-review, and getting them to reminisce. So the letter writing is a really good way to stimulate both life-review and reminisce.”

She says it’s amazing to see the response from people, as letters are coming in from all over the Peace Region and beyond. McNally says they’ve received multiple letters from people in Edmonton, and have even had correspondence from someone in the UK. They’re also receiving letters from local Brownies, who earn badges for writing letters, as well as families who are attaching drawings, jokes, and stories from their children in the letters.

McNally is also incredibly grateful to the staff at the facilities, as many of the seniors don’t have the faculties to be able to read or sometimes even hold the letters, and the staff have been on hand, reading out the letters, and helping raise their spirits during their isolation.

Anyone interested in becoming involved in the Virtual Pen Pal Program can send an email to McNally at hope@gpcare.ca or to the Grande Prairie Palliative Care Society at volunteer@gpcare.ca.