Assignment on Social Isolation Among Older Adults

Running head: SOCIAL ISOLATION AMONG OLDER ADULTS
Social Isolation Among Older Adults
Meaza Senbete
WGU
C229

SOCIAL ISOLATION AMONG OLDER ADULTS 2
The community nursing diagnostic statement is a statement which describes the heath
issues and health risks within a particular community and also provides strategies to resolve
them. It forms the basis for community based intervention. It is derived through efficient
clinical decision making from the analysis of the data collected during assessment. It is found
that the elder people specially who are above 55-60 years of age, suffer from depression and
other mental health disorder, along with cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, obesity
owing to social isolation and loneliness. About 20-22% of the older adults in the United
States have been found to suffer from loneliness, which in turn affects their well-being. The
reason for social isolation among the elderly people may be due to sudden demise of a loved
one. Almost 72% of the socially isolated women aged 85-89 years are found to be widowed,
some of them are retired from their work. Social isolation can also happen due to physical
disabilities or mobility impairments; and lastly it can occur as a result of poverty which leads
to a financial insecurity, thus exacerabating the social isolation among the older people.
Looking at the concern of social isolation on the health of the older people, in USA, an
organization named “Humana” have provide a toolkit for overcoming loneliness and social
isolation among people. Their aim is to promote social bonding through cognitive behaviour
therapy or social skill training and to prevent the occurrence of loneliness with the help of
community awareness and certain educational programs.
Social isolation is a state of disconnectedness where an individual feels physically
separated from other people and likes to be on their own. The persons break all the
connection with the society, does not keep any contact with other individuals and totally
isolates themselves. Social isolation is mostly noticed in elder peoples, as they grow older
their social circle gets smaller, children and grandchildren gradually drift away making them
lonely and isolated(De Witte & Van Regenmortel, 2019). It has severe impact on the health
of the older people causing depression or decline of cognitive abilities, and other serious

SOCIAL ISOLATION AMONG OLDER ADULTS 2
health issues like cardiovascular problems, obesity and dementia. Several other factors are
also related to social isolation among the older people, such as, financial problems due to low
income, for which they could not afford the expenses required for participating in social
networks. These peoples are also unable to participate in normal relationship and other social
activities. Social isolation is an issue of health inequality because of the risk factors
associated with it. Social isolated leads to poor mental heath and depression and increases the
risk of mortality. Depression increases the aggregation of platelets in the blood through the
loss of function of serotonin, thus increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. Other
complications include increased heart rate and release of adrenaline, which in turn, increases
the risk of arrhythmia. Studies suggest that, depression increase the risk of mortality by 25%.
Research studies found that isolated people have an increased desire to smoke, which
increases their risk of cardiovascular disease(Al-Kandari & Al-Sejari, 2018). Loneliness also
escalates the risk of dementia through increased secretion of cortisol which leads to stress and
high blood pressure. And some evidence suggest that loneliness reduces the immune system
of the people therefore increasing the risk of infections.
There are many primary health care centers, social services and civic centers available
which address the concern of social isolation midst the older people and helps them in
dealing with loneliness by giving emotional and mental support. Their primary aim is to
make those people feel that they are not alone in this world, and assure them that they will get
support and assistance whenever they want(Seyfzadeh, Hagighatian & Mohajerani, 2017).
The field experience was conducted among the different cities of the United States and the
results showed high prevalence of social isolation among the older adults. It was found the
the olser people aged over 65 years of age had a higher risk of being socially isolated owing
to age related alteration in health condition. 20% of them said that they had vision and
hearing problem and were not able to move due to impairment of mobility. Around 42% of