An Age-Appropriate Assist

John Antsy keeps a busy schedule. Tuesdays and Fridays, he heads over to see Don and Prudence Allender, who might need groceries or prescriptions picked up or a light bulb changed. “It’s a great boon, because neither of us is driving,” Mrs. Allender said. Mr. Antsy, on the other hand, is still cruising around Waterloo, Iowa, in his 2000 Buick LeSabre.

On Mondays, he visits with a woman living in his subsidized senior apartment building; she uses an oxygen tank and rarely goes out, so she appreciates having company.

On Wednesdays, he spends a few hours with a man who has Parkinson’s disease, which provides a break for the man’s caregiving wife. “It gives her time to go out with her sister and get her hair done, have lunch, do some shopping,” Mr. Antsy explained.

No clients on Thursday, but “that’s fine and dandy, to have a day off.” Mr. Antsy, who volunteers about 20 hours a week with the Senior Companions program at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, can use a break himself now and then. He’s 78.

About 13,600 such Senior Companions participants — all older adults themselves — served nearly 61,000 clients last year. The volunteers must be at least 55, but more than 40 percent are, like Mr. Antsy, over 75.

Introduced in 1974, part of Senior Corps, the program “helps frail seniors maintain independence in their homes, while also providing respite for caregivers,” said Kate Enos, a spokeswoman for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency overseeing volunteer programs. The companions, whose annual income this year can’t top $22,340 for one individual (200 percent of the federal poverty guideline), receive a nontaxable stipend of $2.65 an hour, which helps them preserve their own independence. “A triple win,” Ms. Enos said.

It seems to have worked that way for Mr. Antsy and the Allenders. “That was a great fit, when they sent John to us,” Mrs. Allender told me. “He’s top-notch.” She’s 77, a retired real estate broker recovering, slowly, from shoulder surgery; she also has muscular degeneration. Her husband, retired from the state Veterans Affairs office, has relied for years on a wheelchair. What they want, badly, is to stay in the ranch house they’ve retrofitted to accommodate their disabilities.

The Senior Companions program can’t provide all the help they need — they also have visiting nurses and support from their church — but Mr. Antsy makes a difference with his cheerful willingness to run errands, roll out the trash cans for collection or stay with Mr. Allender when his wife takes the paratransit van to a doctor’s office. They pay nothing except mileage for Mr. Antsy’s help, but they invite him to share lunch. On the menu the day we spoke was Mrs. Allender’s chicken casserole and a banana cream pie.

For his part, Mr. Antsy said, “It gives me a feeling that I’m actually helping people.” Often, his chief contribution isn’t doing chores, “it’s just keeping them company.” (Just?) Having clients to see keeps him active, he added, and the modest stipend helps finance his every-other-winter trips to Florida. And, as he noted, “Prudence is a gourmet cook.”

Shouldn’t programs like this be flourishing everywhere? Volunteering and social interaction are both demonstrated boosts for older adults and their physical, emotional and cognitive well-being. And so many older people need flexible help with transportation and shopping and chores if they’re to remain in their homes and defer or avoid institutionalization.

With flat federal financing over the past few years, only 220 Senior Companions programs operate around the country. However, RSVP, a broader federal program with no income limitations or stipends, matches those over age 55 with a variety of nonprofit organizations that need volunteers, from local schools to disaster relief teams.

To find either program in your area, go to www.getinvolved.gov. And if you or your older relative has been a senior volunteer, or received help from one, please tell us about your experience in the comments section below.