by CALLIE SHANAFELT
About a year ago 62-year-old Linda Asberry was on the verge of depression. She was struggling with her weight, arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, gout, injuries from two debilitating accidents and could barely make it up and down the 42 stairs to her apartment.
“I didn’t think that I had anything left to offer the world,” said Asberry.
Then people from the organization Meals on Wheels, which brought her food, asked if she’d like to talk with someone. She said yes, and got the number to the Institute on Aging’s Friendship Line.
Now, someone from the Friendship Line calls Asberry every night between 6 and 8.
The Friendship Line is a suicide prevention and mental health hotline for seniors. Last year, they got 18,000 calls. But they also make outgoing calls to remind elders to take their medication or to offer emotional support to people like Asberry. They made 40,000 of those calls in 2011.
HealthyCal for more
(Thanks to reader)