Most people can acknowledge what it’s like to age in terms of physical experience. The knees creak, the back hurts, and no one can open a jar like they used to. But rarely is any difference addressed in terms of mental and emotional processing, or rather the detriment that occurs when someone spends day after day with little human-to-human interaction. It’s not just loneliness, but social isolation in older adults is more than what families realize while the consequences unfold.
Health Consequences of Social Isolation that Go Unnoticed
When someone is alone, and not just single but widowed or divorced – going a few days without anyone meaningful to talk to, their body not only suffers from lack of socialization, but it actually starts breaking down differently. Reports show that senior citizens without adequate social support equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day (2008). That’s not a scare tactic, but rather where researchers find health consequences that exist over time.
The brain needs stimulation like the muscle needs exercise. When problem solving, social skills and enhanced collaboration are not part of the daily routine, seniors begin to lose memory capacity that would otherwise stay manageable. They lose access to their decision-making processes. They even lose track of routine tasks like remembering to take their medication or recognizing food has spoiled.
Mental health plays a large component of this as well, and for older populations who are never assessed for depression, it’s often misinterpreted or goes undiagnosed as fatigue, confusion or lack of concern for unexplained physical complaints. Once depression sets in, however, it’s a vicious cycle; little desire to leave the house or call friends, less eating, less moving until the world becomes a smaller and smaller place.
What Having Someone to Talk to Regularly Does
Here’s where it gets interesting: having someone to talk to isn’t just a means of entertainment or companionship; it serves an intentional purpose for health and safety. For those who work with companion care services for seniors in Philadelphia, the benefits are recognizable for families who otherwise wouldn’t have known something was an issue until it got better.
Seniors with someone who comes to talk to them regularly have sharper minds. They know someone’s coming, someone they want to engage with, so they prepare themselves; think about what they want to say; engage with current events or remember anecdotes from their past. This matters more than crossword puzzles and brain games because it’s collaborative instead of internalized.
But more so, just merely having another person around changes behaviors that keep people healthy and safe. As mentioned, if someone is alone, they’re less likely to eat because why cook for one? They may forget they’re dehydrated; they may wear the same dirty clothes for days because no one is there to judge or help. When someone knows another person is coming tomorrow, and the next day, they feel it’s almost instinctive or inadvertently natural to engage again; meals become social opportunities; personal care becomes operable.
The Safety Factor Families Don’t Consider
One element most people fail to think about until it’s too late is this: isolation can become dangerous. When an older adult falls there’s no one there to call for help. What happens when an older adult falls with someone else? They yell for help; someone runs over; the world is made aware.
But many signs go undetected during social isolation. A family who comes once a week may not notice gradual changes as much as someone who’s there all the time has full conversations – not just health check-ins. They notice if someone becomes more confused than normal; if balance is off; if a story is told three times in an hour.
Timely assessment makes a significant difference concerning conditions in older populations. For example, urinary tract infections can cause a senior citizen suddenly confused like they have dementia. When it’s found early enough, antibiotics are administered. When it’s discovered after days of discomfort, it may be too late and lead to hospitalization and further issues down the line.
Why Video Calls Don’t Fix the Problem
Some families believe regular phone calls get the job done; at least they’re better than nothing. While they’re helpful in lieu of nothing else – and obviously preferred – but there’s no accountability or physical presence like a visit brings; there’s something learned about in-person connectivity.
Video calls, especially remote ones, are far more easy to brush aside than scheduled accountability. When someone knows Sarah is coming Tuesday and Thursday mornings, those are anchor points in time. They provide impetus to get out of bed, get dressed, clean up the house. A video can be canceled last minute with no concern; it can be cut short for another meeting.
Additionally, a video call cannot reach something on a high shelf or in the back of a cabinet; it cannot see that the milk smells bad in the fridge or that there’s a slow leak under the sink. It’s ineffective for small tasks that become burdensome to family (or go undetected without family known) over time.
The Emotional Support Piece That Changes Everything
However, out of practicality and information gathered for personal and physical health and safety are transformed into something more nuanced: older adults learn how to live as themselves instead of slowly becoming patients filled with limitations defined by family perceptions.
Consider how much personal identity exists through being witnessed by others: the jokes they tell; their perspective on politics; their memories and recollections, these powerful memories exist when shared at least fully. When shared with no audience, however, this is where even the best personality slowly declines. Not dramatically, but slowly over time like paint drying on a wall when no one’s watching.
The same goes for family relationships. Adult children (and friends) find it easier, and enjoy more value, when their friend or parent has someone else helping keep their social engagement afloat, the parent has more to talk about when family comes over and is less focused on trivial complaints over a three-hour visit.
Make the Choice Before There’s a Crisis
The best time families think about companion services is when something has gone wrong – a fall; hospitalization; a light bulb moment when they haven’t seen their loved one all day because he/she’s been sitting in a dark room for hours on end. However, crisis makes things harder, the change is jarring, and all problems are already established.
The best option is for families to realize situations that have changed before they become problematic, for example, if someone wants help talking about friends or their recreational activities instead of implementation now that they’re frustrated all their friends have passed away or gotten sick. If there’s visible neglect from personal care or household chores.
These aren’t failures or reason to feel guilty, the normalcy of aging can set in without worries, all it takes is simple support directed toward legitimate avenues that protect transition integrity for everyone involved.
Getting help from others does not mean dependency has set in; receiving aid from others does not mean defeat has been accomplished. It means that proactive means ensure better health maintenance by keeping older adults involved instead of without any recourse instead often called desperate measures for help.
Humans need each other, and in addition to staying socially engaged for mental and emotional awareness, the regular companionship provides means no medicine can do. For families who want their loved ones not just safe aging – but thriving – it’s an option worth exploring sooner than later.
