In our high-tech world, there are many opportunities for not-so-active older adults, and even downright infirm older adults, to share ideas and make their voices heard. This website aims to provide a place for people aging without family to come together as a community.
All progress results from both individual and group efforts. As individuals, we can inform ourselves of the realities of our future – individual and collective. We can focus on sharing our knowledge, identifying needs, and organizing to meet those needs. As a group, we can inform politicians, academics, and policy-makers about our situation, and demand that research be carried out and resources made available to assist those aging without family support.
Doing this is in everybody’s interest, since those without family caregivers put extra stress on our already overloaded care systems. Among the many reasons for this is that people without family are more likely to put off getting care until late in the process, when conditions are more serious and less tractable. With no one to run to the pharmacy or otherwise ride herd on them, they’re less likely to follow care instructions. The result is earlier admissions to nursing homes, and more and costlier visits to hospitals.
Though still invisible, seniors without family are a growing population. While I could find no data estimating the number of seniors without children (or the number without children able to be responsible for them), a 2010 Pew Research Center study (PDF) found the percentage of women aged 40-44 without children to be almost 20%, up from roughly 10% in the 1970s. The large number of single-child families, plus the growing geographical dispersion among families, will leave more and more older adults effectively childless.
The informational content of this website currently reflects my personal, far from universal, knowledge and experience. I hope you’ll contribute your own knowledge and experience, and join me in making this website a broad resource for seniors aging without family, and ultimately, an advocacy organization promoting our own interests.