Amid Isolation And Loneliness, Elderly Face Crumbling Safety Net
Enlarge this image
Homebound senior Louise Delija, 93, receives a meal delivery in Brooklyn, New York. Since the pandemic began, demand for help from seniors has ballooned.
Ted Shaffrey/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Ted Shaffrey/AP
Enlarge this image
Rose Frusciante and her husband Mario, who died in 2017.
Rose Frusciante
hide caption
toggle caption
Rose Frusciante
Goats and Soda
Reader Tips: 9 Ways To Bring Joy And Care To Older People In The Pandemic
Jay Bhattacharya, who teaches medicine and studies aging at Stanford, says the fate of a senior citizen today, often depends on how much they’ve saved during their working years.
«In many ways, the experience of older Americans mimics the experience of the rest of the population, he says. Those who have considerable savings and retirement security are doing better.
«It mainly is rich versus poor.
Shots — Health News
There’s No Stopping These Seniors; Even A Pandemic Can’t Bring Them Down
For seniors with limited income, the problem is exacerbated by a shortage of home health aides. In Mount Vernon, the Department of Senior Programs and Services says many are afraid of riding the bus to work for fear of catching COVID-19.
Agencies that supply elderly with aides say they are now forced to compete with hospitals facing staff shortages. And with much of school moving online, aides are facing a care issue of their own. If they go to work, who will watch their children?
Beth Finkel of AARP New York says that when seniors won’t or can’t go out and family or aides aren’t going in, a troublesome snowball can start to form — isolation and loneliness.
In normal times, it’s hard to live without someone to squeeze your hand, help you put on a favorite sweater, or reminding you to swallow a pill from one of those little plastic cups.
«Our research shows that being isolated is equal to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, she says.
According to the CDC, isolation and loneliness can lead to an increased risk of dementia, stroke, heart disease — even suicide.
But with the pandemic, another another kind of safety net is disintegrating — the kind created by the daily social interactions seniors might typically have with a waiter at a coffee shop or a teller at a bank.
«If that is not in place, if people can’t get out to visit those sites, then who’s going to be able to say, ‘Oh, no! Mrs. S. doesn’t have a winter coat on today? she said.
As she stays inside and waits for help from the state, Frusciante says she is not scared to die.
«I mean, we’re all going to die, she says. «I’m afraid to go in a place in a hospital clinic and I am dying and I couldn’t even see my family.
But what does devastate this woman, who has lived through a world war, the assassination of a president and more, is having to wave hello to her two grandchildren through a window.
«That killed me, not to touch my grandkids, she says.
- home health aides
- elderly care
- New York
Обсудим?
Смотрите также:
