An international survey from the Public Health Agency this year shows that loneliness and social isolation are most common in younger and older age groups among people in single households, people with disabilities and people who are on sick leave or unemployed.
Margareta Orverud, 91, says that she has lived alone for most of her life.
– I’m used to living alone. Every now and then I feel chatty, in the past I used to call a friend and say now I’m chatty and we talked for half an hour. But now she’s dead so I have no one to call anymore.
Older people who are socially isolated in Sweden
In the age group 75-84, ten percent in Sweden live socially isolated. Among people aged 85 and older, eight percent are estimated to be highly socially isolated, which means that contact via telephone and internet occurs less often than once a week according to the National Board of Health and Welfare’s report from 2022.
Wants to break social isolation among the elderly
Several initiatives are currently underway in Sweden to reduce loneliness among different target groups, both at the municipal level and in civil society, according to the Public Health Agency’s survey this year.
One of them is the SPF Seniors, who this year have been granted funding by the Allmänna arvsfonden for their three-year project “Volunteers counteract involuntary loneliness in the elderly” where, through volunteer work, they want to reduce loneliness among the elderly.
– We try to break the social isolation that exists among the elderly by using other seniors as volunteers to meet and help people out of the isolation they live in, says Peter Sikström, general secretary at SPF Seniors.
Harder kind of loneliness
Peter Sikström believes that there is self-selected loneliness, and involuntary loneliness, but when it comes to social isolation, it is much deeper than that.
– Those who live in social isolation do not seek contact outside their own accommodation and are much more difficult to get in touch with. But when you meet them, they tell you heartbreaking stories about not having spoken to anyone for days or sometimes weeks.
Watch the video where we visit the Blomsterfonden senior housing in Stockholm and reason about loneliness.