Christmas
“Silbernetz” hotline available continuously until New Year’s Day
Elke Schilling is the founder of Silbernetz. The hotline offers people aged 60 and over a listening ear. photo
© Christoph Soeder/dpa
Many seniors are lonely during Christmas. They will be able to reach someone on the silver phone at any time until the New Year. Most of the callers “just want to talk.”
A special hotline in Berlin also offers a listening ear for lonely seniors over the holidays. From December 24th to On New Year’s Day, the silver network is available around the clock and throughout Germany, as a spokeswoman for the Berlin association announced. In the same period last year, the phone rang a whopping 5,628 times. The hotline can be reached every day, but not around the clock.
“It makes me happy and sad at the same time how Silbernetz is developing, how urgently it is needed – around 20 percent more calls every year with all the topics that concern older people in their unique diversity,” said Silbernetz initiator Elke Schilling in a statement Notice.
According to the association, most of the callers “just want to talk” (84 percent). 58 percent talk about loneliness and 68 percent about physical complaints.
Most calls occur on Sundays
In the dark and cold season, more seniors generally called the telephone hotline, it was said. Most calls usually occur on Sundays.
By mid-December, the silver network had recorded 148,000 calls this year. That was an average of 1,900 calls per week. 20 percent of those calling were men and 80 percent were women. Most calls came from Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg.
From Christmas Eve at 8 a.m. to New Year’s Day at 10 p.m., the silver telephone is available around the clock on +49 800 4 70 80 90.