Addressing Social Isolation Among Seniors – Hamilton Seniors Advisory Committee – TPR Hamilton | Hamilton's Civic Affairs News Site

January 6, 2017
During January’s Seniors Advisory Committee, there was a brief update on research about seniors living in social isolation in Hamilton.
The project is funded by the federal government and City staff are presently in the research and consultation phase of drafting a city-wide plan to reduce seniors social isolation.
Social isolation is a public health concern, research – including at McMaster University – shows that social isolation has health impacts both decreasing quality and length of life.
As the number of seniors – and their proportion of the overall population – increases, addressing quality of life issues such as isolation will be critical not only to seniors, but to all of us as we need to find cost effective means of decreasing health care costs, and finding ways for seniors to meaningfully engage in our community will be critical to the quality of life of all of us.
I wasn’t aware of this study prior to today’s meeting, it’s one I’ll be watching for – this is an important issue, it is good to see planning for it.