An Garda Síochána in Castlebar this week launched a “Positive Ageing’ programme designed to help keep older people safe in the locality. Members of the community in the town were invited to attend for a ‘Meet and greet’ at Castlebar Garda Station where they were hosted by Sgt Tony Cosgrove and Inspector Willie Keaveney who outlined simple preventative measures that can be undertaken to ensure their safety.
Earlier this year two new community gardaí, Garda Michael Tolan and Garda Lydia Cawley, were appointed to liaise with different community groups including the elderly. The meeting this week enabled both the elderly community and the gardaí to get to know each other.
As part of the presentation, Sgt Cosgrove outlined a number of simple measures that can be taken to ensure personal safety, such as not keeping large amounts of cash at their home, not answering the door to strangers, being vigilant when using ATMs and banking facilities and, in cases where they notice anything at all that looks suspicious such as people hanging around outside their home or strange cars or vans in the neighbourhood, to contact the gardaí who will come and investigate. The event was rounded off with an informal chat between the gardaí and guests over tea and biscuits which were sponsored by Dunnes Stores for the event.
