The Silver Line is the UK’s only free 24-hour national helpline for older people that are feeling isolated and lonely. The number is available to call all year round and the service recently revealed that December was the busiest month in the charity’s 4-year history. The news follows hot on the heels of Theresa May appointing MP Tracey Couch to the newly created role of Minister for Loneliness as part of the government response to the report from Jo Co Commission which Silver Line participated in.
The Christmas period is traditionally busy
In December of last year Silver Line responded to 47,318 calls representing a 10 per cent increase over the previous year. The majority of the calls came in between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. Sophie Andrews Silver Line’s chief executive says last Christmas was the charity’s busiest ever. 14,000 calls were made to the help line which was an increase of approximately 1,000 compared to 2016. Ms Andrews said the largest spike in calls occurred on New Year’s Day when the help line received 1,773 calls or a 14% per cent increase from 2016.
Elderly people feel isolated over the holidays
Ms Andrews added that New Year’s Day is when the help line usually receives calls from elderly individuals who have not spoken to anyone for days on end and then suddenly find themselves invited to celebrate for a few hours over the festive season. They then find after the celebration, they are all by themselves again and find it hard to deal with the concept of New Year’s Day because they see yet another year of isolation and loneliness stretching ahead of them.
Plenty of volunteers and staff members pitch in
Silver Line is fortunate to have an army of volunteers and along with them the management team and trustees all pitched in to make over 4,700 outbound calls to lonely and isolated elderly people over the course of December. An additional 1,112 calls were made on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day combined. Ms Andrews says that in the four years since the launch of the charity, Silver Line has responded to over 1.7 million calls from elderly individuals who feel isolated and lonely. This however is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of reaching people who are in need of someone to speak to.
Fundraising is the biggest challenge
Ms Andrews says that 80% of the more than 10,000 calls the helpline gets a week come from first time callers who often refer to Silver Line as a ‘lifeline’. According to Ms Andrews the demand for the service shows no signs of slowing down and as we journey into 2018 this means that the cost of running the helpline is rising. In order to keep the service going, Silver Line needs to raise a massive £15,000 per day in donations. This is the charity’s biggest challenge and it needs to be met in order to ensure there is someone there to listen to some of society’s most vulnerable members this time next year.
