It’s not uncommon for elderly individuals who live alone in their homes to feel lonely. While an occasional pang of loneliness is not necessarily a bad or dangerous thing, long-term feelings of loneliness can lead to depression and other health risks. They can make life seem not worth living or cause a person to withdraw even more.
If you’ve noticed your loved one has been feeling lonely lately, there are suggestions you can make to help him take the needed steps to feel less lonely. If he seems unable or unwilling to take these steps on his own, you might find that having a companion care at home provider visit several times a week might help him not only connect with the companion care at home provider but also have someone to encourage him to take other steps to alleviate his loneliness when the companion care at home provider isn’t around.
Pick Up the Phone
This step requires the least amount of effort and is cost-free. While your loved one may feel like he doesn’t want to bother anyone with his phone calls, it can be helpful to let him know when is a good time to call so that when he does pick up that phone, the receiver will be able to chat a bit. You can also encourage other family members and friends to call him often just to catch up with each other.
Invite friends over
He doesn’t need a fancy home or a perfect meal to invite friends over. If your loved one has other elderly friends who live alone, remind him that they might be lonely as well, and having a weekly game of backgammon might help them feel more connected to others as well. He may not want to do it for himself, but he might be more inclined if he thinks it’ll help others.
Become Comfortable with Technology
If your loved one lives far away or has others that live far from him, help him become comfortable with programs like Zoom videos or even Facebook or Tic Toc, where he can watch videos and read about how others in his family are doing, as well as create some content of his own. As with any technology, help him learn about being safe on the internet and how to avoid the many scams out there.
Join a Local Club
Help your loved one remember what his interests are and then help him find other people in his community who share the same interest. It could be a bowling league, a book club, or a horseshoe tournament. Making friends who have common interests can often lead to other activities outside of that interest as well.
Volunteer
Many seniors find it alleviates their loneliness to volunteer at local organizations that they support. It can just be for a few hours a week, but having somewhere to go and having someone count on you, can boost a person’s feelings of self-worth and keep them from feeling lonely and isolated.
Say “No” Less
Finally, remind your loved one it’s his job to say yes when someone invites him out, or his job to pick up the phone when someone calls. Making himself available to others will help continue those relationships and in the end, reduce his loneliness.
