Elderly people who live alone are not asking for assistance as they believe doing so makes them seem weak – even if they fear for their safety.

“Unfortunately, there is still this mentality among the elderly that if they ask for assistance they are admitting they can no longer care for themselves,” EmCare operations manager Lucienne Bezzina said.

EmCare provides real-time health monitoring and also powers the TelecarePlus service, which allows subscribers to call for assistance when required through a small pendant that is equipped with an emergency button.

Those living alone are mostly concerned about being robbed, Ms Bezzina said, adding this was more pronounced after a recent spate of break-ins. While many more admit they do not feel safe in their own homes, some still find it hard to seek assistance. “We tend to come across two main extremes. We have elderly people who want to seek assistance but whose children deny them this as it makes them feel they are not offering their parents the proper care.

“Then there are people who feel that by asking for help, they are no longer able to care for themselves, which is obviously not the case.”

Earlier this month, a 77-year-old woman living alone in her Swieqi house told this newspaper how she fought back as two robbers attacked her and tied her to a chair in her home.

She kicked, punched and scratched one of her assailants after they tricked her into letting them into her house.

They left after spending 45 minutes in the house and she eventually managed to free herself.

In the aftermath of such stories, Ms Bezzina said, there was usually an increase in awareness and the safety of the elderly remains a hot topic for some time. However, this tended to die down after a few days, she said. “There was a similar situation recently when there were reports of houses catching fire. In fact, many requested the installation of smoke alarms.”

The elderly are much more willing to install such alarms, she said, as these protect them from things beyond their control.

Another company offering personal assistance also noted a greater sense of fear among the elderly. Those requesting assistance insisted they wanted reassurance that those helping them were trustworthy.

“They want to be sure who they would be dealing with before actually letting anyone into their homes,” a company spokeswoman said. An in-crease in requests for assistance specifically from Swieqi was also noted.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.