United States: Sociologist Elena Portacolone was surprised by what she found during her visits to older adults in San Francisco for her research. Many of them seemed confused when she arrived. Some forgot they had an appointment or couldn’t remember talking to her at all. It became clear that these individuals had some trouble with their thinking and memory, but they were still living alone.
As reported by Scientific American, Portacolone, an associate professor at the University of California-San Francisco, asked how frequent this was. Has anyone looked at this group? How were they managing?
When she looked at the research literature over a decade ago, there was not much there. “I found out that this is a generally isolated group of individuals,” she said.
Both earned their degree in Physical Therapy and got to work, now Portacolone oversees the Living Alone with Cognitive Impairment Project at UCSF. The project also believes it that at least 4.3 million Americans aged 55 and above with MCI or dementia are single individuals.
According to their studies, about half of them experience difficulties with personal care, feeding, cleaning, grocery purchasing and procurement, administration of medicines and management of their incomes. However 33% was able to get assistance with at least one of these activities.
Of the sample of older adults who live alone, those with cognitive impairment are considerably older, more likely to be female, and Black or Hispanic with lower education attainment, income, and homeownership than peers. However fewer than one in five is eligible for public programs like Medicaid which covers costs of having attendants offering services at home.
Whereas a health care system that presumes that older people have family caregivers to support them, “we saw that this population was slated for failure,” Portacolone said.
Imagine what this means. Finally, when these seniors begin experiencing memory and thinking deterioration, they may forget bills, get their electricity turned off or face eviction. They might cease shopping (it is too much for them) or cooking (it is too much for them to follow recipes). They may not be able to articulate themselves well or even handle themselves with touch-tone phones.
A variety of other problems can occur, such as loneliness, nutritional deficiencies, neglecting their own wellbeing, and getting duped. As individuals get older and find themselves alone, their health could declines with no one to notice and struggle with dementia without being diagnosed.