America’s elderly are unprecedentedly lonely. In a bipartisan, multigenerational push, people are fighting to bring them back to the center of society.
In many ways, America’s elderly population is invisible. That is, as a person’s relative utility diminishes in the context of our fast-paced, productivity-maximizing culture, they are relegated to musty old-age homes, banished to the peripheries of society.
Their suffering, in other words, becomes an afterthought.
A 2024 study published by the American Medical Association found that “adults aged 50 to 80 years commonly reported loneliness and social isolation.”
What’s more, this age cohort is increasingly living alone. This is particularly problematic, as individuals in their years of infirmity require special attention and regular check-ins. These check-ins provide them, among other things, with much-needed social connection and companionship.
When they are starved of connection, however, the elderly become vulnerable to a slew of problems.
Researchers are learning more and more about the psychological and physiological side effects of loneliness every day. These include, but are certainly not limited to, increased risks of cardiovascular disease, all-cause dementia, and cognitive impairment.
Thankfully, though, in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers and public officials are paying far more attention to the deadly scourge of loneliness and social isolation.
In fact, tackling the loneliness epidemic has been a bipartisan effort.
In February of this year, Senators Rick Scott (R-FL) and Tina Smith (D-MN) reintroduced the Social Engagement and Network Initiatives for Older Relief (SENIOR) Act. This legislation, if implemented, would amend the preexisting Older Americans Act to include “loneliness” in the definition of “disease prevention and health promotion services.”
Additionally, as part of the act, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be tasked with preparing a report on the effects of loneliness on America’s elderly population, as well as some prescriptive measures for ameliorating them.
Lastly—and, I would argue, most importantly—the bill calls for an emphasis on intergenerational connectedness, i.e., programs that bridge generational gaps by bringing together younger people and the elderly in shared activity.
Intergenerational connectedness used to be something inextricably linked to our definition of the family unit: American families, even before they were nuclear, were multigenerational. In Conservatism: A Rediscovery, Yoram Hazony explains the concept of the traditional family:
“The traditional family often consisted of three generations (or even four) in daily contact with one another. The bond between parents and children was not yet imagined as something that undergoes a rupture when a child turns eighteen or twenty years old… And where there is no rupture between adult children and their parents, and they continue to live near their parents in the same community or even in the same household, grandchildren grow up with grandparents and perhaps great-grandparents.”
Today, we are far removed from the norm of Hazony’s traditional family. In fact, most American families in the 21st century are sprawled across the country, with children living in one state, their parents living in another, and grandparents in yet another. Save the annual family function or holiday, the unit is fractured and exists in independent orbits.
This fragmentation of the multigenerational family unit is mostly a Western phenomenon, with other non-Western cultures—India, in particular—maintaining the norm of the multigenerational household.
Restoring this little platoon in America, however, would be a great feat, probably beyond the scope of public policy. Congress can, however, empower nonprofits that specialize in intergenerational connectedness.
As Andrew MacPherson, the Founder and Executive Chair of the Foundation for Social Connection Action Network, remarked in his testimony before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging in March, “There are a number of ways in which Congress can help ameliorate loneliness and its deleterious impacts on older adults' health and well-being.” The SENIOR Act, he continued, would expand “community programs that connect diverse age groups.” These programs have proven remarkably effective.
MacPherson mentioned one nonprofit, DOROT, named after the Hebrew word for “generations,” that aims to combat social isolation in elders by connecting them with young people. For one, volunteers can help elders by providing them with hands-on tech coaching and monthly at-home visits.
To be sure, passing the SENIOR Act will not be a panacea; the loneliness epidemic will still persist. It will, however, send a signal that Washington is taking the matter seriously and is entertaining meaningful public policy solutions. What’s more, this is a truly bipartisan issue in an increasingly polarized country.
If there is one thing that we should all be able to agree on, it’s that we have an obligation to take care of our elders and ensure that they never have to suffer alone.
