Increased health risks for isolated elders
17th January 2017 · 0 Comments
By Michael Patrick Welch
Contributing Writer
Part II
Recent studies show that prolonged isolation from society represents the same health risks as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and that deep loneliness can greatly increase the risk of death, according to the AARP Foundation.
Isolation can be triggered by poor physical and mental health, transportation issues, ageism and other societal barriers, or a sudden major life event such as loss of spouse or retirement from the work force.
Edna LeBoyd, who is 60, uses dance as a means of mitigating isolation not only for herself but also for her 82-year-old mother Mary Pierce, for whom LeBoyd is now caretaker.
“Many of my mother’s friends are no longer here, they’re deceased,” says LeBoyd, “and she likes to be around people close to her age.”
LeBoyd is a Senior Dance Fitness Program participant with the New Orleans Ballet Association (NOBA). “I am pretty active,” she says.
Twice a week, LeBoyd’s mother Mary attends dance classes at NOBA in order to keep her active and engaged.
“My mother and her friends are in the NOBA program twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. We do a lot of stretching, and it’s at an easy pace. Then the instructor does cardio and puts on all types of music, and it’s fun because we’re dancing.”
But just as important for seniors as staying physically fit is the socialization aspect of NOBA. “I have friends who are retired and NOBA really helps with socialization for them,” LeBoyd attests. She also says NOBA’s fitness program for folks aged 55 and older provides similar comforts to a church group.
“When we first arrived, everyone introduced themselves and exchanged numbers,” LeBoyd recalls. “There are people that come there who are no longer working, don’t have a lot of family around them, they’re not connecting with others. They come to NOBA to exercise but then realize: ‘Oh we’re friends, and we’re celebrating the holidays together! We’re always celebrating other members’ birthdays and baby showers.’”
For some who don’t have family and friends, however, measures to mitigate the isolation took more than dance classes.
In 2010, a handicap forced 79-year-old Juanita Robinson to move into the senior citizen apartment complex The Terraces on Tulane. It was then that she realized how alone she had truly been.
“I had owned my house but then after I got older… my daughters both died,” says Robinson. “I don’t have any people here. My relatives are all dead and I don’t have any in New Orleans,” she explains, “That’s another reason I live here at the Terrace.”
Robinson says she is lucky to have been moved to her current, more social situation before she was ever truly cut off from society.
“Here we’re all basically in the same situation, though most of the people here have family,” she says. “I don’t really interact with anyone unless it’s with the residents here. And they have activities here that I can do, like play cards. Then for Christmas they had a party, and then they have a New Year’s breakfast and different things that we’re able to do.”
Similar to Robinson, 63-year-old James Woolridge had to move in order to connect.
Following a spate of homelessness, which he says was precipitated by geographic isolation, Woolridge moved into the New Orleans Mission.
“When I found a house, I was far out, and the people I knew wasn’t coming that way. I was in my apartment by myself… It got kinda boring cause I am used to being around people and functioning with them…and I started doing drugs again and fell back off,” recalls Woolridge, who is a retired carpenter, electrician, plumber and truck driver. “I was cut off from my family because I was using drugs and not living like I was supposed to.”
He stresses how important it was for him to escape isolation in order to regain his life: “I have a different outlook on life [now] that I am doing something, not having idle time,” he says.
“I have COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), asthma, high blood pressure and all that but it makes me feel good to still play and be with my brothers—I would not have that if I had not come to live in the Mission,” he admits.
Since moving into the Mission, Woolridge has gotten clean and started preaching Christianity to anyone who will listen.
“At this place I see all kinds of people coming and going every day and that helps me stay motivated to help someone else,” he says.
For more information on elderly isolation, including ways to identify and avoid it, the AARP Foundation has created the Connect2Effect website at http://connect2affect.org.
This article originally published in the January 16, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
