City based Dignity Foundation has been offering help to senior citizens through their newly setup 24X7 helpline I am a 65 year old man staying in Pimpri and need assistance for writing my will, says one while another calls in saying,I am a 70 year-old lady whose children are not looking after her properly. Could you help? These are not just quotes but queries with which elderly persons dial in to 020 30439100,a special,24X7 help line for senior citizens. Established on the lines of call centre,the organisation is different with it's promise of rendering effective communication. Our approaches of handling concerns of senior citizens are of two types. While one is based on delivering benefits,services and opportunities to senior citizens,the second one is about advocacy wherein we strive to bring about policy- level changes at government level, says Lakshmi Ramamurthy,general manager,Pune Chapter,Dignity Foundation. Having started in January,the help line is handled by two staff members and six paraprofessionals who on receiving the calls,counsel the callers about the concerns raised. It is a continuous process wherein the call is just a tip and our job starts when we follow up the case. We have a team of 25 volunteers who are experts in various fields such as law,medicine,accountancy and are senior citizens themselves who provide the assistance that is needed further in that particular case. While a few cases get solved in one phone call,there are a few that continue for months and the volunteers have to visit senior citizens homes in order to offer help, adds Ramamurthy. Over the past two months,the help line has received 10 to 12 types of calls that can be broadly categorised under- depression related calls,abuse,loneliness,neglect,property disputes,health related calls and will related queries. Something that is very common amongst elderly women is that they feel lonely after the demise of their spouses primarily because of having no friends. In such cases our volunteers help them find their lost friends. In one of the cases,the daughter called in to say that her brother was not taking care of their mother. In such a case our volunteers helped the lady find a maid who could assist their mother. Besides there are calls for professional assistance such as tax payment,name transfer issues,savings related problems and so on that we help them with, she adds. With over 12 other senior citizen centric programmes such as second career function,under which the foundation has employed four individuals till date,or the medical insurance and credit card tie ups or for that matter the net savvy citizens programme for senior citizens on facebook,16 members of Dignity Foundation are virtually on a call 24X7,if not over the phone,over the commitment they have been showing towards senior members of society.
