Half a million elderly people “in a situation of social death”

Half a million elderly people in France never or hardly ever meet other people. This number has increased by 77% in four years, warns the association Les Petits Frères des Pauvres in a study published Thursday.

The Covid-19 crisis, with health restrictions, “precipitated those who had a fragile relational fabric into intense isolation”, observes the association in the second edition of its barometer “Loneliness and isolation when you have more 60 years in France in 2021 ”.

The number of seniors isolated from family and friendly circles has more than doubled (+ 122%) in four years, going from 900,000 in 2017 to 2 million in 2021. This sharp increase is “one of the consequences of more than 15 months of health crisis” which put the brakes on re against.

1.3 million elderly people never or hardly ever see their children and grandchildren, compared to 470,000 during the previous barometer in 2017.

“I have four children, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, but I am all alone. There is one who lives in the Bordeaux region, another in the Gard, another in the Paris region. My daughter lives in Lille but she works and doesn’t have the time, ”testifies Denise, 81, living in Hauts-de-France, cited by the study.

L he association takes into account four circles of sociability to measure the isolation of the elderly: family, friends, neighborhood, associations. 530,000 elderly people are no longer in any of these circles.

“Between 2017 and 2021, our measurement of the social death indicator has almost doubled”, notes Yann Lasnier, general delegate of Little Brothers of the Poor.

“Links with friends and associative networks have suffered the most from successive confinements”, notes the association in its study published on the occasion of the Day. International Elderly People’s Council on October 1.

3.9 million elderly people, or one in five, have no or hardly any friendships, compared to 1.5 million in 2017

It is the neighborhood circle that has suffered the least (-2%), as well as relations with traders and other local professionals, whose association emphasizes role of “ramparts against isolation”.

“The only person I saw this week was the electrician who gave me light bulbs”, says Berthe, 71, cited by the study.

A third of the people elderly people (6.5 million people) feel lonely frequently, 14% (or 2.5 million) every day or very often.

Cited by half of the people, health crisis has had an extremely strong impact on the loneliness of the elderly, faced with the death of a loved one, illness, disability, separation or divorce.

“Slipping towards death”

To be without close family, in loss of autonomy, not to be comfortable with digital technology and having an income of less than 1,000 euros are factors that trigger isolation.

3.6 million elderly people are still excluded from digital technology, while the internet , with social networks and visios, was a valuable tool for maintaining social ties during the crisis.

However, they were encouraged to use it because they were 61% to spend video calls in 2021, especially young seniors.

However, social isolation is a factor in giving up healthcare

“An isolated elderly person lets himself slip towards death”, observes the psychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik, quoted by the study.

The association of fight against senior loneliness recommends taking into account relational isolation to assess the loss of autonomy of the elderly, which conditions help.

The desire to grow old at home is expressed even more so than in 2017, by 44% of seniors. The nursing homes see “their image even more tarnished” by “a health crisis which has shown the difficulty of combining preservation of the health of residents and respect for citizenship”, observe Les Petits Frères.

Regretting the abandonment of the Great Age law promised by the French government, the Little Brothers of the Poor call for “to make the fight against the isolation of the elderly a major axis in the construction of public policies for the prevention of loss of life. ‘autonomy’.

ATS