The “Help at Home” program, with continuous operation for the past 26 years, supports all citizens in need. It is aimed at elderly individuals who cannot fully care for themselves and people with mobility impairments or special needs, prioritizing those who live alone, lack full family care, or whose income does not allow them to secure services that improve their quality of life.
The program started as a pilot in 1998 and has since consistently elevated assistance for socially vulnerable groups to a flagship of social contribution. Fully aware of the challenges in an urban center facing repeated economic and social crises, the program focuses on providing comprehensive primary health care.
Day by day, the program improves the quality of life for individuals who feel weak or isolated by offering systematic and organized social support from trained professionals, addressing significant care deficits caused by the absence of a supportive family environment or by various types of disabilities (mobility, sensory, mental, or intellectual).
ΣThe program’s services include:
- Individual counselling and psychological support
- Assistance in interactions with public services to secure pensions, allowances, other benefits such as food aid, and issuance of disability certificates from KEPA
- Nursing care: vital signs monitoring, personal hygiene, wound care
- Prescription management, delivery of medications from pharmacies and EOPYY pharmacies
- Appointment scheduling, accompaniment, and transportation to and from hospitals and examination centers
- Home cleaning
- Shopping for goods
- Handling external errands such as utility bill payments
- Delivery of free food packages
- Walks and outings
- Integration of older adults into Friendship Clubs
Since April 2022, the “Help at Home” program has been reinforced under the initiative “Innovative Home Care Services for Vulnerable Groups in the Municipality of Athens”, included in the Operational Program Attica 2014-2020. The initiative is co-funded by the European Social Fund and continues under the new NSRF Attica 2021-2027.
See here the inclusion decision and project budget here.
For more information, citizens can contact the program’s hotline: 2144117060
Department of Social Solidarity, Municipality of Athens
Patision 159, Athens
Phone: 214 4117060