How Easy Is It for Seniors to Meet New People and Make Lasting Connections?

“Loneliness has never been seen by people as an illness, if you will, or as a condition. And, in fact a lot of people were very scared of saying that they are lonely,” Francoise Morissette, an organizational development consultant, told rabble.ca.

Morissette said a stigma is attached to loneliness and that is because it was often assumed that there was ‘something wrong’ with anyone who admitted they were lonely.

Then, COVID levelled the playing field making loneliness an everyday, yet, news  worthy occurrence that people became willing to talk about.

According to the National Institute on Aging at Toronto Metropolitan University, social isolation and loneliness are often used interchangeably. However, social isolation is a lack of contacts, family or friends, while loneliness is an undesirable subjective experience stemming from unfulfilled social needs.

That means social isolation and loneliness probably share common risk factors, consequences and beneficial interventions.

Older adults are more prone to experiencing both social isolation and loneliness due to life events, declining health and mobility, and loss of loved ones.

Both social isolation and loneliness can lead to mood disorders, dementia, heart disease, increased substance abuse, poor sleep, and premature death.

Those outcomes lead to increased health care use as well as higher health care costs.

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