Introduction

Humans are social creatures. By connecting with others, humans not only survive but thrive. As we age however, many people find themselves more alone—leaving them vulnerable to social isolation and loneliness. 

For the elderly, life stressors, loneliness, and poor mental health are often intertwined. There are multiple mental health risk factors for the elderly including physical, psychological, and economic challenges as they age. Social isolation and loneliness in older Australians can result from living alone, low family connection, reduced cultural connection, or difficulty participating in their community. 

These life stressors can result in isolation, loneliness or psychological distress in older people and place them at risk of related health problems such as cognitive decline, disablement, heart disease, and depression. In Australia, men aged 80+ suicide at the highest rate of any age group. 

While suicide is a complex topic, it is evident that social isolation is a key contributing factor to poor mental health in the elderly. With the advent of COVID-19 social distancing measures in place, all Australians are at increased risk for loneliness, though none more so than the elderly.

As a high-risk group for COVID-19, the elderly are required to isolate more strictly than others, potentially exacerbating existing mental health risk factors. Social distancing is changing the way we communicate, work, shop, socialise, exercise, manage our health, educate, and take care of family members. As a result, it is likely we will be facing a ‘new normal’—affecting how the elderly, their friends and their loved ones will be able to connect with each other now and in the future. 

We partnered with Lead Researcher, Steph Perry, along with Ipsos, AMSRO, ESOMAR, and Research Got Talent to research and explore the impact COVID-19 is having on elderly Australians and what we might learn from it.

The research, conducted in with spur:org, Ipsos, AMSRO, and ESOMAR, was completed in a two-phased research approach starting with a qualitative component validated in a quantitative online survey with a sample of 1000 people. Download the press release. or view the full report.
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Experiences of COVID-19 restrictions depend on how vulnerable the elder was prior to the pandemic.

‍This is not just from a social network and opportunity perspective but also their degree of autonomy, sense of purpose, mental and physical capacity, adaptability, and access. All these interconnected factors combined impact the resilience and coping skills of elders who are isolating.

Elders who have all these factors in their favour still have negative feelings about COVID-19 restrictions, however, their resilience to the situation helps them rise to the challenge, to remain connected to others, and settled in their situation—hunkering down and keeping themselves busy. Elders who were already vulnerable to these factors feel stuck, controlled, confused, angry and frustrated about the restrictions. Some described the experience as being caged. 

This multifaceted finding reflects the literature. The World Health Organisation finds multiple mental health risk factors among elders including new physical, psychological, and economic challenges at their age. The Black Dog Institute also found that social isolation and loneliness in old age can result from living alone, low family connection, reduced cultural connection, or difficulty participating in their community.

It is clear that this is a complex topic that pre-dates COVID-19 and goes beyond the social opportunities that COVID-19 restrictions take away.

Some relationships have changed, but most Young Mates feel they have stayed the same.

However, those who feel their relationship dynamics are changing for the worse, are severely struggling to maintain their friendship.
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As expected, relationship contact is seeing a large reduction in physical contact. However Young Mates are still seeing their Old Mate in person about the same amount or only reduced a little. Of all forms of contact phone calls have increased most but are still significantly more likely to have stayed the same. Interestingly, video calls are mostly seen as not applicable—reflecting the results that many Young Mates feel that having the ability and resources to use technology for connecting is not at all important to their relationship.