Sometimes we just follow our intuition.  Right now, we have some active clients whose shaky handwriting on their contribution slips or envelopes gave us pause.  We called them to ask how they were doing.  They agreed to home visits, although they did not realize that ‘the SBS does that.’   One client lives in very comfortable circumstances, but is lonely.  As a result, she tended to be too confiding with strangers, particularly in financial matters.  Our social worker visits regularly, pays her bills, deals with the building staff of her luxury condo and tries to entice her to come to our monthly Kaffeeklatsch.  -  Another lives quite contentedly in an assisted living facility, but is delighted to have an outside visitor from time to time.  In her mid-nineties, she just underwent cataract surgery and is almost looking forward to a knee replacement later this year.  She is determined to live to 120 and may just make it!  The Kaffeeklatsch has become an important event for many Swiss seniors and attracts close to thirty persons each month.  On the surface, it is just a pleasant get-together, a lot of fun in itself. Over the years, informal support networks have grown among the regulars.  They keep in touch by phone and e-mail and lend each other a helping hand when needed.   

The Kaffeeklatsch also allows our staff to unobtrusively monitor the wellbeing of the participants.  A long-time regular told us that she could no longer remember the way; we knew then that the time had come for a move to a nursing home.  We visited regularly, even after she no longer recognized anyone, and recently buried her ashes in Switzerland, as she had wished.