Charlestown's Telecross has come to the end of an era with its closure at the end of the month.
Calls have been made across the Hunter to elderly and disabled people since 2009 with over 50 volunteers at the Charlestown Telecross call centre.
Red Cross Regional Operations Manager Ben Clark, insists the service will remain the same understanding the importance of these phone calls for their recipients.
"The calls are critical, they are very essential for the people that we work with. Many of them are elderly Australians and they experience social isolation through physical impairment or geographical isolation," says Mr Clark.
The closure comes due to a transition to a community based model of volunteers calling from home and the Blacktown call centre as a steady decline of numbers has been seen since 2016.
"Volunteers are more then welcome to stay on-board with our community Telecross program, we also have some face to face programs for elderly experiencing social isolation as well and they will be able to transition over to them," Mr Clark said.
Mr Clark believes the Telecross program will remain effective asking family members to express interest in the program.
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| Telecross Recipient. Image:Australian Red Cross |
"If family have a loved one who they want to receive a welfare check or a social call from a Telecross chat program then they are more then welcome to refer them to us, its a completely free service," said Mr Clark.
