Social Isolation Of Elderly Continues As The Pandemic Wanes

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Laurence Gerber is clear that isolation among the elderly didn’t begin with the coronavirus, but he says the restrictions placed on the elderly during the global pandemic have vividly magnified the issue, at times with heartbreaking results.

Gerber told Patch that helping to keep seniors connected with their family, their communities and each other was one of the reasons he founded Epoch Senior Living in 1997. He now runs more than a dozen senior living communities in the Northeast, including in the Hudson Valley. The expert on aging with decades of experience explained that recent events have brought a whole new set of challenges.

“Growing up, many of our grandparents lived at home or nearby in the same communities,” Gerber said. “With families living farther apart from one another, and the fast pace of today’s society, many older adults struggle with loneliness and social isolation. While this has always been an issue for older adults, when COVID-19 struck it took on a whole new meaning. And with the growing number of aging Americans, the issue of social isolation has become more prevalent.”

Gerber said that immediate concerns about keeping residents safe from the coronavirus soon gave way to concerns about how to keep seniors engaged while best practices in the pandemic often meant keeping people physically isolated from each other.

“Loneliness is not only sad, but it impacts our physical and mental health, aging us more quickly, doubling the rate of dementia and increasing the chances of stroke and heart attack,” Gerber said. “According to a study by the AARP Public Policy Institute, Stanford and Harvard Universities, socially isolated older adults are more at risk for poor health, dementia and death.”

As vaccines became more readily available, many of these issues were resolved, but for some seniors, returning to pre-pandemic life was no easy transition.

“While we can’t fully measure how this isolation has impacted older adults, we have seen a decided improvement in the spirits of residents in our Waterstone communities once some of the Covid-19 related restrictions were lifted,” Gerber recounted. “When we first reopened our community dining rooms, some of our residents were reluctant to return, but once they did, they came night after night, cheered by the ability to once again spend time with their friends.”

Gerber notes that although the global pandemic may soon be relegated to history, the lingering sense of loneliness and isolation as we grow older won’t disappear quite as quickly. He is doing his part, but he said, having experienced a small sense of this social disconnect ourselves in recent months, it is a good time to reflect on what we can all do to help give older adults in our lives a sense of connection.