loneliness

The High Cost of Loneliness: The Other Price Older Adults Are Paying For Covid-19

For months, families and operators of long-term care facilities have been telling me about the indirect toll the covid-19 pandemic has taken on residents. Not on those who have sickened or died from the virus, but on those whose quality of life has been severely harmed by the social isolation it caused. Now, we are beginning to learn more about [...]

By |2021-03-25T11:08:27-04:00March 25th, 2021|nursing homes|0 Comments

An Inside Look At How Covid-19 Is Driving An Epidemic of Loneliness in Nursing Homes

What has it been like to live in a nursing home during the covid-19 pandemic? Because access to facilities is so limited, it is hard to know. But, for the first time, a survey of residents tells a grim story of loneliness and isolation: 90 percent said they never left their campus, 60 percent said they never even went outside [...]

By |2020-10-08T12:01:49-04:00October 8th, 2020|nursing homes|5 Comments

How To Reduce Loneliness In Old Age

Isolation and loneliness are serious problems for older adults. They become less mobile, their friends and relatives die, hearing loss and other physical limitations make it harder to communicate with others, and seniors are often reluctant to even try to make new friends. Young people, they say, are not interested, and, as for other older people, why bother, they will [...]

By |2018-03-22T17:43:19-04:00March 22nd, 2018|aging in place|7 Comments

Dealing with the Loneliness of Aging

My dad, who had congestive heart failure, lived on the second floor of a garden apartment building that had no elevator. As the disease made him weaker, he could no long walk down the stairs. And for the last year of his life, he was trapped in his own apartment. An "outing" was a slow walk, and eventually, a wheelchair ride about 100 feet to the [...]

By |2011-09-07T14:56:23-04:00September 7th, 2011|Aging, aging in place, Senior housing, transportation|11 Comments