Loneliness, the greatest challenge of the elderly

2025-09-03 12:04:00, Sociale CNA

In recent months, the city of Korça has been faced with a painful reality. Dozens of elderly people have been found dead in their homes, with no one around. Loneliness and lack of care are becoming a worrying problem, which has become increasingly apparent in recent years. The most recent case was recorded yesterday, when a 70-year-old man was found dead in his home.

Kostika Zdruli

According to specialists, this phenomenon is related to major social and family changes. Kostika Zdruli, a social worker at the Korça Senior Citizens' Residence, says that they face stories of loneliness every day.

" We see every day that the elderly are lonelier. Most of them are lonely for various reasons. They can be single, divorced, in cases where they have no children, in cases where their children have died. We have cases where they are abandoned and the rest are in emigration, where the children wanted to take them with them but the elderly have returned to their city, so they did not want to live abroad."

The demand for residential care is high, but the capacity is minimal, with only 31 places available for the entire region. This has led to many elderly people waiting for months, even years, on waiting lists.

"The demands are very high and our capacity is small in relation to the demands of the region because we have requests from all over Albania but we are limited to the Korça region. The demands are very high in relation to the number of 31 that we have available. There are many elderly people waiting a long time on the list."

Another ever-growing challenge is dealing with dementia.

"The biggest difficulty we see in recent years is that the number of people with dementia has increased significantly, and we cannot always cover this category because here is a mixed community with people who do not have problems with dementia. People with dementia have different behavioral disorders and it depends on what other problems this disease brings. We see that dementia has affected many people aged 60-65 and the difficulties are very great in housing them."

Loneliness, the greatest challenge of the elderly
The tragedy of loneliness is also often seen by workers who care for the elderly in residential homes.

"Employees who go to nursing homes for care are witnesses to many tragic cases. The driver has happened to find many people who have passed away, perhaps even hours after he left the apartment. We see many cases that have required urgent medical assistance where we, along with the residence staff, have gone to help or have notified the family."

In this reality, salvation for many elderly people is neighborhood and close human connections. A greeting in the morning, a knock on the door, often become bridges that keep them connected to life.

"The best friend or family member that the elderly have is the one they have near their home, the closest person who can notice if they leave the house or say 'good morning'. We have many cases where children observe their parents even with cameras, cases where they often communicate with the elderly via phone. I think something needs to be done to find a way to identify lonely people."

The phenomenon of lonely elderly people is becoming one of the most serious social scourges of our time, requiring more care, attention and concrete policies to give them dignity and security in the last years of their lives./ CNA