Cologne (dpa / lnw) – More than half of the calls that the Malteser in North Rhine-Westphalia received via the house emergency call between Christmas Eve and January 2 were calls from loneliness. A spokesman for Malteser said on Tuesday in Cologne that many more people than usual reported over Christmas and between the years, this time there were about four times as many. Many older people in particular are connected to the Malteser via a so-called home emergency call. You can press a button and someone from Malteser’s headquarters will answer via a hands-free switchboard.
According to the information, the alarm was triggered 4,488 times this time. The ambulance went out 392 times. But with more than 2,500 alarms triggered, i.e. more than half, no specific help was required, said the spokesman. Rather, the seniors simply felt the need to talk to someone. “We look after around 40,000 home emergency call customers in North Rhine-Westphalia and are observing with concern how many older people are already suffering from loneliness,” said Ruth Horn-Busch, head of home emergency calls at Malteser NRW. “This is a serious social problem. People are getting older and we are realizing that there is no longer the classic extended family that takes care of each other.”
