Social isolation of the elderly

Isolating elders in retirement homes places them in a static relationship to society. The individual is forced to operate out of a reduced context, his capacity to function in society is limited. The elder's role becomes irrelevant perpetuating the need for isolation. There is strong evidence that senility sets in sooner and faster with limited physical and intellectual stimulation.

In the European Union, 28% of those aged between 65 and 79 were living on their own in 1995. The proportion rose to 45% in the case of those aged 80 and over.

1. Social withdrawal of aged
2. Social isolation
3. Fragmentation of social structures in depressed areas

1. Loneliness in old age

1. Substance abuse by the elderly
2. Disorientation of youth in a culturally turbulent environment

1. Urinary incontinence
2. Unmeaningful social roles for the aged
3. Susceptibility of the old to physical ill-health
4. Slowness of sensori-motor activities in the aged
5. Shrinking community life
6. Restrictive patterns of tradition-bound lifestyle
7. Psychosocial effects of transport systems
8. Overtrafficked residential streets
9. Obsolescence of rituals and customs
10. Neglect of elderly in institutional care
11. Mental disorders of the aged
12. Insufficient possibilities for gathering of elders
13. Inadequate welfare services for the aged
14. Inadequate income in old age
15. Inadequate housing for the aged
16. Environmental degradation of inner city areas
17. Disobedience of elders
18. Diffusion of family role expectations
19. Decline of the extended family
20. Collapse in the meaning of participating in society

1. Isolating social forms inhibiting ethical relations
2. Abusive treatment of the aged

1. Isolating socially
2. Breaking down social isolation of the elderly

1. Isolation
2. Limitedness