Our Hidden Epidemic: Loneliness and the Elderly

How can we who are over the age of 65 fight loneliness, and how can we help those unable to help themselves?

Activities such as dance lessons, knitting clubs, and book clubs provide opportunities to meet and make new friends. Dmytro Zinkevych/Shutterstock

Scenario 1: Shortly after you’ve fulfilled a longtime retirement dream and bought a house in Naples, Florida, your wife of 49 years dies of an aneurysm. Your three grown children still live in New England, and you know none of your Florida neighbors.

Martha was always the social one, arranging get-togethers, pushing you to join a book club, inviting friends to the house.