Learning to cope with the health threats exacerbated by loneliness is urgent
Canada is among the nations with the highest prevalence of kinlessness in the world, alongside Ireland, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Margolis and American researcher Ashton Verdery projected the numbers of older adults without living kin in the United States to 2060 using demographic microsimulation. By that time, those without living children in the U.S. will number 21.1 million people, they concluded. Friends, acquaintances and neighbours can serve as “elastic ties” for older adults without family. Research shows that there is some “substitution” happening in social relations among those who are kinless, said Margolis.
In the neighbouring Britannia Village, almost one in four residents is over 65 and nearly half of those live alone. In nearby Laurentian, which includes Highland Park and Carlingwood, 21.2 per cent of residents are over 65, with 38 per cent of these living alone. While many Oasis participants have children and are not strictly kinless, they don’t want to uproot themselves and follow their children, said Vincent DePaul, an associate professor of rehabilitation science at Queen’s University and co-lead of the Oasis expansion and evaluation project.Article content
Every Oasis site has a volunteer board of directors and a paid part-time coordinator. The program is estimated to cost between $55,000 to $60,000 a year, including the coordinator’s salary and the cost of program materials. But helping seniors stay at home as long as possible is a lot cheaper than long-term care.
There were health benefits for members as well. The number of people who reported at least one fall dropped from 12 per cent to 6.8 per cent. Residents were also less likely to visit an emergency department, be admitted to hospital, be injured in a fall or receive home care.
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