Age Scotland seeks help from Falkirk residents as Helpline faces meltdown

Age Scotland has seen an upsurge in calls to its helpline

The organisation says it urgently needs assistance to enable it to help more vulnerable people through the coronavirus crisis, with sky-high levels of Helpline calls predicted to rise still further and elderly people start to feel progressively more isolated and lonely.

Age Scotland says they are the most severely affected by coronavirus measures, since all over-70’s have been advised to stay at home.

This in turn is said to have led to tens of thousands of pensioners struggling to carry out everyday tasks such as shopping for food and picking up medication.

Age Scotland chief executive Brian Sloan said: “This is not a crisis that will be over in days or weeks. We are going to be battling the effects of this pandemic for many, many months.

“The longer it goes on the harder life is going to be for older people, particularly those who are alone and in danger of becoming chronically lonely. We need to be here for them.

“In the past two weeks our helpline has been transformed into a virtual call centre with teams working tirelessly at home to manage the surge in the number of calls we are receiving.

“In order to keep up with the demand for our service, we rely on the generosity of our supporters and everyone in Scotland who cares about the safety, wellbeing and dignity of older people.

“Please, if you can, consider donating to Age Scotland. Your contribution will go directly to supporting our frontline service and help us deliver advice, information and friendship calls to even more older people at an extraordinarily challenging time”.

Donations can be made online at www.age.scot/donate or text AGESCOT to 70490 to donate £10 (Texts cost £10 plus one standard rate message).