Loneliness among the elderly
Loneliness is a big issue for the elderly in Tempel and Woenselse Heide. By participating in an elderly network, they keep meeting each other and they can keep an eye on each other’s needs and health. This way social cohesion and thereby the perception of the neighbourhood improves. It is important to connect as many elderly as possible to this network to improve their lives and fight loneliness. In Woenselse Heide the only organized network is the neighbourhood association Heidehonk. In Tempel the elderly network consists of the neighbourhood association ‘t Trefpunt and the meeting point for seniors, Vivaldi. Since there is already some form of an elderly network the question is, in what way is the elderly network in Woenselse Heide and Tempel smart? In this context smart is mentioned in the way of efficient use of the network and the effective distribution of information about the network and their activities. In this case technology can be a part of it, but not necessarily because a lot of elderly don’t use social media or other online services.
To find out more about what the current network consists of and who are connected to this network, we walked through both neighbourhoods to talk to the inhabitants and visited the central meeting points Heidehonk, ‘t Trefpunt and Vivaldi. We found out that there is quite a difference between the network in Woenselse Heide and the network in Tempel. In Tempel, Vivaldi is very active to get in contact with the elderly in the neighbourhood and organize all the activities they would like to do. ‘t Trefpunt is for all ages, but also hosts a few groups of senior activities. These activities are also visited by inhabitants of other neighbourhoods. In Woenselse Heide there are a few groups of elderly who go to Heidehonk to play cards, dance or make creative decorations.
After interviewing about 20 people we found in general 3 different perceptions on the elderly of the neighbourhoods. The first group exists of inhabitants who are active at Vivaldi or the neighbourhood associations. The second group exists of inhabitants who don’t join the activities but absolutely like the way they live. This group mainly enjoys the open space and green parts of the neighbourhood and the stores near by their houses. Sometimes this group is quite lonely but they still enjoy living in the neighbourhood. The third group feels lonely and don’t know about what kind of activities are organised for elderly. They mostly feel like everyone in the neighbourhood just minds their one life. They mostly live in the neighbourhood because they have been living there for a long time and the shops are nearby.