Older and alone in a crowd
by Geraldine Hinter
Loneliness for older people is a personal experience that is often difficult to talk about and hard to describe. Because of the stigma attached to loneliness, it is often kept secret from others.
A team of researchers, led by UniSA’s Professor of Health Sciences, Julianne Cheek and Professor Wendy Moyle from Griffith University, has been conducting a comprehensive in-depth study into the perceptions and understandings of loneliness among older people and service providers.
The aim of the study is to increase knowledge and contribute to existing knowledge of loneliness in older people.
"By gaining a greater insight into how older people perceive and understand loneliness, based on what they see and experience, we can use that knowledge to develop solutions and strategies that will help older people manage loneliness in their everyday lives," UniSA Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dr Katrina Jaworski said.
Funded by a three-year Australian Research Council linkage grant in partnership with Griffith University and four collaborating aged care industries, the research is being conducted across selected metropolitan and regional areas in South Australia and Queensland.
Interviews were conducted in SA and Queensland with older people ranging in age from 68 to 91 years. The study also included semi-structured interviews, focus groups and discussions with service providers, family members who had parents living with them and support workers in the aged care sector.
Four different patterns emerge in the way that loneliness is understood and perceived by older people and service providers. Loneliness is a private and personal experience that older people don’t want others to know about because they see it as a sign of failure or weakness; it is influenced by a sense of belonging or feeling connected to networks, friends and the wider community; the ability to maintain quality relationships, especially with family members; and is related to time, in particular, night time. During the day older people often enjoy outings such as shopping, lunches and different events, but at night they feel lonely because they have no one to go home to and nothing to do.
"Just because older people are single and live alone doesn’t mean that they are lonely. Older people can experience loneliness within a marriage and some people in independent living units experience loneliness despite being surrounded by other people," Dr Jaworski said.
"One interesting difference that came from service providers was that loneliness is associated with readjustment. Older people may experience the loss of a life partner and they have to grieve. There is emptiness that comes with that loss, and the need for support to help them gain a sense of purpose in life again. They have to adjust and then readjust, not only to the grief but also their health, because older people don’t have the same mobility they once had, these changes and adjustments might take longer," she said.
The data wasn’t all negative and good things came out of the research.
"We discovered that older people see themselves as quite active. They love volunteering and are very interested in interacting with other people, in travelling, and doing lots of things, especially things that have purpose and meaning in their life. They are a very creative, heterogeneous group, and are pretty good at spotting lonely people," Dr Jaworski said.
The study includes people from occupational therapy, occupational science, nursing, psychology, sociology and cultural studies backgrounds, and the aged care sector.