Breaking Social Isolation
Ιn most rural areas of Europe, more and more young people nowadays find themselves in a situation of social marginalization, for many reasons: geographical isolation, difficulty of access to work, lack of infrastructure for taking initiatives, reduced interest in the resources and peculiarities of their region, etc.
Older people also face multiple risks of social isolation and loneliness, due to many factors: retirement, loss of spouses/partners and loved ones, changes in their state of health and functionality, etc. Furthermore, older people are the age group most likely to be at risk of living alone, with rates particularly high among older women. Although living alone is not deterministic for loneliness, it still remains a risk factor.
In particular, rural residents face multiple barriers to connecting with each other, including transportation challenges, a specific built environment that is not always walkable or conducive to social interaction, limited financial resources, limited access to broadband internet and mobile connectivity, limited access to health care, including mental health care, etc.
Each of above is further amplified when it comes to older people in rural areas, who tend to be less mobile than their younger counterparts and more dependent on community-based resources. Despite the fact that older people in rural areas report having more extensive social networks than those living in urban areas, they also report higher levels of loneliness, highlighting the existence of structural barriers to connectedness.
Interventions to deal with the phenomenon can be both personal and interpersonal:
Personal interventions can involve, for example:
- Support lonely people through social structures,
- Use of modern technology for remote monitoring of vital parameters
- Accessing telemedicine, etc.
Interpersonal interventions can include:
- improving access to transportation,
- building social networks,
- enhancing participation in group activities, etc.
Moreover, leveraging technology to provide immediate access to all kinds of digital conveniences can benefit both young and old residents.
In relation to all of the above, the use of the tools offered by the Urbact Network will lead to the creation of a strategic plan with actions that will aim to remove social isolation and will propose viable and sustainable solutions to improve the daily life of citizens.
More specifically, the research and recording of the reasons that cause social isolation, the recording of similarities and differences between partners, the exchange of good practices developed by other cities, reporting on the problems that may have arisen for some partners and the way they dealt with, can lead to the creation of a comprehensive action plan to address the problem.
Our Network can include Actions as:
- Evaluation in conjunction with local stakeholders, of the problems involved, the actions that address to every problem, and how to further engage citizens to take full profit of them
- Considering and benchmarking existent solutions, as a first step towards addressing the problem
- Develop Integrated Action Plans in order to improve scocial interraction, healthcare using modern technology, scocial inclusion through digitalisation
Potential partners
- City Authorities with a strong interest in addressing the problem of scocial isolation in Rural areas
- Possibly one academic partner with interest for recearch for the subject of social marginalization and geographical isolation and in close association with a City Authority
