Many of us appreciate the occasional opportunity to disconnect, giving our minds and bodies a chance to recharge against the din of the increasingly noisy world. But when solitude becomes long-term and turns into loneliness, the results can be detrimental and potentially devastating, particularly for older adults. For many, loneliness arises from unmet needs for social interactions...It’s a precursor to a host of poor medical and social outcomes that have economic ripple effects across families, multiple industries, and society as a whole.

It’s going to take a new kind of village Professor Hiroko Akiyama of the Institute of Gerontology at University of Tokyo said, “We need to redesign the whole society. Because of its existing structure, we don’t currently meet the needs of an aging society.”

Suggested Actions:

For government agencies, healthcare providers and advocacy groups:
• Work together to incorporate loneliness criteria into routine medical screenings and social outreach programs.
• Investigate the use of cognitive systems that could aggregate data, connect organizations and effectively match and manage individual social and medical needs to programs and resources within the community.
• Address the need for more flexible retirement programs that encourage individuals to remain in the workforce.
• Consider how existing network infrastructures (for example, postal systems, emergency responders) could be leveraged to identify and mitigate loneliness in the aging population.

Read the source article at Home | Grantmakers in Aging