European Climate and Health Observatory, 2017

Demographic change and climate change together place great challenges on the society. The life expectancy of the population in Germany rises and so does the share of older people. Besides chronic patients and children, the elderly are especially affected by the effects of the climate change. At the same time more and more people live in single person households (increase from 14.56 million in 2004 to 16.83 million in 2016 in Germany), which can influence their social isolation. How can we reach these people in order to prevent negative impacts during heatwaves? This is where the heat hotline parasol from the city of Kassel (around 200.000 inhabitants) in Germany comes into play. The heat hotline parasol is a free of charge hotline that calls registered citizens and provides information on heat-warnings from the German Weather Service and suggest measures how to best deal with and adapt to higher temperatures and heat. With this hotline special support is provided to citizens, especially elderly and their families, to deal with heat in the urban area of the city of Kassel. The Elderly Committee of the City of Kassel and the Health Department of the Kassel region cooperates in the heat hotline parasol.