24 Mar, 2020 @ 14:08
1 min read

Lonely, elderly British expats at risk of coronavirus on Spain’s Costa del Sol tracked down and offered medicine refills and phone time with psychologist

ESTEPONA has activated a special plan to track down elderly people who are living alone to help them get through the coroanvirus lockdown. 

Local councillor Begona Ortiz said the team of municipal workers have managed to track down 531 at risk pensioners, 168 of whom are foreign expats.

The town, a British retiree haven, is now operating a service which sees town hall workers contact the at-risk residents by telephone to ask what provisions or help they need.

They mostly ask for their medicines to be topped up, which is then carried out by the workers in conjunction with the Red Cross.

Ortiz said the most important thing its letting the elderly know that they are not alone.

For this reason a psychologist has also been roped in to attend to the at risk group via telephone.

Meanwhile, the soup kitchen has remained open to offer takeaway food to all those who need it.

And its supplies have been plentiful after almost all the hotels in the town donated their surplus food after being ordered to close.

Laurence Dollimore

Laurence Dollimore is a Spanish-speaking, NCTJ-trained journalist with almost a decade’s worth of experience.
The London native has a BA in International Relations from the University of Leeds and and an MA in the same subject from Queen Mary University London.
He earned his gold star diploma in multimedia journalism at the prestigious News Associates in London in 2016, before immediately joining the Olive Press at their offices on the Costa del Sol.
After a five-year stint, Laurence returned to the UK to work as a senior reporter at the Mail Online, where he remained for two years before coming back to the Olive Press as Digital Editor in 2023.
He continues to work for the biggest newspapers in the UK, who hire him to investigate and report on stories in Spain.
These include the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Mail Online, Mail on Sunday and The Sun and Sun Online.
He has broken world exclusives on everything from the Madeleine McCann case to the anti-tourism movement in Tenerife.

GOT A STORY? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es or call +34 951 273 575 Twitter: @olivepress

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