Helpline Services

HelpAge India operates Toll Free Elders’ Helplines (1253) in 21 states of India. It is a telephone line which is used by people with specific problems in order to contact advisers and counsellors who are specifically qualified to deal with them. The helpline also links services and resources to older persons in need of care and protection.  It is functional from 9:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. on Monday to Friday.

The primary objectives of the help line service are:

• Information Services
• Active and Reflective Listening: Sharing Concerns of Lonely Older Persons or Older Persons with Difficulties
• Counseling: Trauma, Individual and Family
• Distress Intervention: Providing Relief to Older Persons in Cases of Abandonment and Abuse

Information on the services provided by local governments and other institutions, and on products designed for the aged. These include:

• Government and other institutional services:
• Old-age homes and day-care centers
• Hospitals, nursing homes, dispensaries and physiotherapy centres
• Medical practitioners and counsellors
• Pharmacies
• Legal-aid cells and legal practitioners
• Senior citizen clubs and associations
• Ongoing and forthcoming recreational and spiritual activities
• Domiciliary-care workers
• Products
• Concessions
• Pensions
• Insurance
• Reverse mortgage

The helpline offers active and reflective listening where call-takers share concerns, and provide emotional support to, lonely senior citizens or those facing difficulties.

Senior citizens, their family members and/or care-givers can also avail guidance over the telephone on general problems and on social or psychological issues. If and when required, the helplines also arrange elder-to-elder consultations and face-to-face counselling. In cases where elders either move out or are forced out of their homes, they and their family members are also counselled so that the elder person is able to return home with dignity.

On receiving emergency call related to abandoned aged individuals requiring medical assistance, the helplines also facilitate services given by government-run hospitals and private nursing homes. In addition, the helplines also handle cases of abuse and/or abandonment - not only by providing counselling and guidance, but also by initiating police intervention and, if required, by facilitating legal action. Where necessary, assistance in finding appropriate shelter for the abandoned elders, especially those dying, destitute, physically handicapped, and/or mentally ill.

The helplines have also become a tool for spreading information about the SCAs and their activities.

Help Line is a response to increasing isolation and neglect of older persons and the consequent need for professional assistance and to ensure availability of services on telephone.

 

A diagram of helpline and their services is given below

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Distinctive Features:

• A distinctive toll-free telephone line/number
• Between 1 and 4 local ‘tolled’ telephone numbers as ‘back-up’ (normally office lines)
• Call monitor/voice recorder (to record up to four helpline calls simultaneously)
• A computer system with speaker and headphones (for maintaining an information data base, recording the types of calls received and compiling reports)
• Paid employees manning the helplines (usually up to two HelpAge India personnel, including a supervisor, and one or more volunteers)
• Eight hours of operation (i.e., during office hours - from 9.15 am to 5.15 pm)
• Support services like information, counselling, and distress intervention
• Links with local police, hospitals, legal cells and old-age homes