Unwanted loneliness has increased all across Europe. Loneliness represents a decrease in the quality of life of many people in our society, especially in the elderly, hindering their health and well-being. Through different co-creation initiatives and considering their needs, our project addresses elderly loneliness. This project will provide elderly and other actors with tools to tackle with their loneliness feeling, increase self-esteem, and understand that living alone does not mean living in loneliness. HEALTHY LONELINESS has developed and validated an adapted learning program tailored to the needs of low-skilled or low-qualified seniors living in a situation of loneliness with the aim of acquiring skills and competences to minimize the negative effects in both mental and physical health. The project has successfully involved more than 200 end-users (seniors in loneliness, people from the community and health/social-care professionals) in the co-development and validation of a training framework based on enhancing the digital competences, knowledge about how to develop a healthy lifestyle and also to strengthen the social bounds in a local context. HEALTHY LONELINESS has promoted the use of ICT Tools (Apps and Assistive Technologies) and developed adapted learning materials and activities to promote several dimensions of the personal development and social inclusiveness (managing the feeling of loneliness, diet, physical activity and sleep among others). All the materials are available through an electronic platform based on a learning management system in English and the languages of the participant countries (Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and French) on free basis in www.healthy-loneliness.eu The project has promoted non-discrimination in education through the direct participation seniors who are out of the scope of standard training offer. HEALTHY LONELINESS has demonstrated that is possible to deploy social, civic, and media literacy tools to combating discrimination of persons in unwanted loneliness. Short term impacts of the project are the increase on the capacities and the abilities of seniors who have participated in the activities, and also an increased awareness of the problem of loneliness in the target group. In the long term we envision that this program, fully ready for replication in more districts, cities and countries, will be used to motivate the permanent change in individuals’ lives towards healthy and active ageing, to inspire initiatives and public policies addressing the social problem of unwanted loneliness and putting into place innovative methods and materials to educate and empower citizens concern their health and social life.
Healthy Loneliness project, funded by the Erasmus+ program and SEPIE had the objective of developing and validating a training framework to fight unwanted loneliness in seniors (persons 60 yo or more). The project aimed to develop high quality educational materials for seniors, for the community and for professionals to rise awareness about the burden of this problem and to propose strategies to minimize the negative effects. Furthermore, the project aimed to create a guideline for the implementation of experiential activities and to validate all the framework in federated pilots in the participant countries. Beyond the specific objectives the collaborative action had the objective of building binds between the associations participating into it and boost local programs. The main implementation outcome of the project was aimed to be a set of tools and methodologies for approaching the problem of unwanted loneliness in the elderly population. Also, several secondary outcomes were planned in terms of dissemination, understanding the problem of loneliness and collaborating with local agents.
Unwanted loneliness has increased all across Europe. Loneliness represents a decrease in the quality of life of many people in our society, especially in the elderly, hindering their health and well-being. The elderly population is often overlooked and forgotten, leaving them to suffer in isolation and loneliness. This not only affects their mental and physical health but also their quality of life. Seniors need opportunities for social interaction with others in their age group or those who share similar interests. This can be achieved through organized social events, group activities, or simply having someone to talk to, but so often these activities are not tailored to them because the professionals nor the community are aware of the burden of loneliness and how to tackle it. Besides, Seniors need a safe and comfortable living environment that promotes their physical and mental well-being, which can include having access to new educational tools for enhancing their capabilities and skills related to information an communication technologies, nutrition, physical exercise and daily management activities.