Seniors let down

Dear editor:
“Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line.”
How many of us have called a business or government agency, managed to press all of the correct buttons in the right sequence, only to be rewarded with this recording?
Do we really believe “our call is important.”
A local senior citizen called the Emo Legion recently, looking for our help because the doctor had taken his driver’s licence away.
He didn’t understand the reason for it. He always has been a careful driver, with no traffic tickets or accidents on his licence.
He tried to call the ministry to get some answers. He did manage to push all the right buttons in the right sequence and got the recording. He stayed on the line and waited, and waited, and waited. . . .
Needless to say, this many felt very frustrated with the lack of service.
He told me he spent his life working and paying taxes, and now feels like he doesn’t live in a free country anymore. The difficulty in getting to talk to a real person at a government office—that is supposed to serve you—is just another way of making a person feel insignificant, like they don’t matter anymore.
After his first conversation with me, he did manage to get through to the ministry. He still is frustrated with the process of trying to get his licence back, but he did manage to get that far on his own.
I guess that says something for his abilities.
I don’t know if this gentleman is capable of driving safely or not, but I do feel that our seniors (and everyone else) deserve to feel that they matter and are being respected by all government agencies.
If you don’t like the service a business provides, you can go elsewhere. You can’t with a government agency.
As Canadians, we pride ourselves on making everything bilingual and handicapped-accessible. But when it comes to using the telephone, I think we have let all of our seniors down.
With all of the technology available to us, we have made it more difficult for a large part of our population to use the telephone.
We all know that as we age, some of us get slower, have difficulty hearing and seeing, and maybe stiffness in joints. The next time you have to “press 1” for English, followed by the number sign, think about how difficult this is to do with arthritic fingers, poor vision, or hearing problems.
If we truly want to keep seniors in their homes longer and improve their quality of life, maybe it is time to rethink what has become the norm in telephone service.
We are all going to be a senior sooner or later. How do you want to be treated?
Signed,
Lucille MacDonald,
First Vice-President,
Royal Canadian Legion
Br. #99, Emo, Ont.