Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Loneliness Epidemic

All humans are wired for social connections, which are essential to our wellbeing. This helps explain why those who are lacking social connection are so impacted by loneliness and not being around others.

Former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy named loneliness an epidemic and spoke of it often. Loneliness is a matter of life or death, he says, just as we need food and water for survival. Without strong social relationships a person is 50% more likely to die early, because loneliness can lead to heart attack, dementia, depression, immune dysfunction, and impaired judgment.¹

Loneliness is especially prevalent in residents of skilled care facilities, such as the one where Elizabeth Barton from our feature article resided. There are approximately 15,000 skilled care facilities in the United States housing older adults. While only about 4% of the country’s population live in care homes, of those that do, over half are 85 years of age or older. And according to the National Center for Health Statistics, it is estimated that 60% of the residents never have a visitor.²

While Elizabeth enjoyed visits from the Good News Crew from Frankford FCC, and other older adults have family and friends stopping by to check in, many older adults do not have the company of others. How can your church help increase the number of older adults who get to experience visits from others? 

Show up:

• Challenge your church to start a regular and faithful visitation program.
• Volunteer to visit residents as a friend.
• Become a ministry prayer partner with a facility resident, praying for each other and others.

Footnotes:

1. Together. Vivek Murthy, 2020.
2. National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK584647/

Here are some additional resources from the Older Adult Ministries resource library about reaching out to older adults who are homebound or living in skilled-care facilities:

Visiting At-Home and Nursing Home Members
Expanding Ministry With Homebound Members
Ways to Reach Out to At-Home and Nursing Home Members