Isolated, lonely, alone: Each word means something different for seniors. But the three can merge when blizzards, cold snaps, snow-blocked streets, icy sidewalks and shuttered services virtually trap older adults in their homes. Staying connected in rough conditions is important for physical and mental health. Here’s how people reach out, for themselves and to others, in stormy winter weather.

Isolated by Ice and Snow

In Vermont, winter isolation is a familiar foe. “When the weather starts getting cold and snow starts flying, people start worrying about, ‘Am I going to be able to get out? Am I going to be able to get to the store?'” says Christine McAvoy, executive director of Brattleboro Senior Meals.

In a largely rural state with limited transportation for seniors, it can be difficult to get out to a doctor or just to see other people, McAvoy says: “So isolation is a major concern for us.” Her group runs the local Meals on Wheels program, which brings nutritious meals to the homebound. Maybe just as important, it brings human contact as well.

“The nice thing about [the program] is that we go to visit people five days a week,” McAvoy says. “Every day, someone on our program gets a visitor. It’s not always the same person, but it’s still someone that checks in on them and makes sure they’re OK.”

Some seniors live alone with no regular contact; others have family members nearby to check on them in the evening after work. “A lot of them, the only contact they get during the day is the postman and the Meals on Wheels driver,” McAvoy says. She encourages volunteers, many of whom are retired, to take time to chat with the people on the routes.

Once in a while, volunteers come upon urgent situations when they go to a home. “We’ve found people lying on the floor because of a fall,” McAvoy says. “It doesn’t happen every day, and part of the reason [it doesn’t] is because we check on them every day. Sometimes, over a long weekend, you worry about who’s going to be OK on Monday.”

Neighbors can help ease isolation among seniors — when they can reach them. “I try to keep track of my elderly neighbors,” McAvoy says. “If I see they haven’t been out of their house in while, I’ll ask around to make sure they’re OK. It’s a small enough community that we can do that here.”

Older adults should know services are out there, she says. “There are places they can phone and people they can talk to,” she says. “They shouldn’t feel like they’re trapped in their home.” Vermont has a senior help line, she notes, and when people call, “they can actually speak to a person” instead of dealing with a frustrating voicemail menu.

Senior centers are great foils against isolation. For instance, Brattleboro Senior Center, where McAvoy works, has a snow-cleared parking lot and a van to pick people up and bring them onsite for lunch. “So they can meet people; so they can be with other people,” she says. “It’s a warm place. We just got a new carpet. And we have lots of things to do down here.”

Lonely at Risk

There’s loneliness, and there’s extreme loneliness, says John Cacioppo, a professor at the University of Chicago and director of the University of Chicago Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience. The more intense and long-lasting your loneliness is, he says, the more it can harm your health.

Loneliness worsens depression, causes fragmented sleep and is tied to a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, studies show. Loneliness has several physiological effects, Cacioppo says, like making blood vessels more resistant to blood flow. The resulting rise in blood pressure shows up in older adults a few years later, says Cacioppo, who explains further in his TEDx talk on the lethality of loneliness.

Choice is the difference between being alone and being lonely, Cacioppo says — loneliness happens when people are forced to be alone. In his long-term studies of older adults, he says, “What we find is when they start losing the capability of being mobile, when they can no longer see their friends, their level of loneliness rises significantly.”

Harsh winter weather that shuts down transit systems and turns pavements into ice rinks reduces mobility even more, of course. It’s tempting to flee the cold and retire somewhere warm and sunny, but people may also leave their strong social networks of family and friends behind — a recipe for loneliness.

You can move and reestablish friendships, Cacioppo says, but it’s not as automatic as meeting a colleague daily for lunch. One study for retirees to consider, he says: “We found that those people who maintain contact with co-workers were less lonely that those who did not.”

Acquaintances aren’t enough, however. Among older women, for instance, it’s important to spend time with trusted women friends. “It’s not really the number of friends you have,” he says. “It’s really having that confidante.”

Alone, and That’s OK

With snowstorms on the horizon, people need to be prepared, says Jim Firman, president and CEO of the National Council on Aging. “They need to have a backup plan, a communication plan; some way to get in touch,” he says. “Landlines go down, and that’s really dangerous — people have no way of communicating.”

NCOA is making an effort help seniors stay connected by bridging the digital divide, Firman says. “We’re doing a project now where we’ve been taking homebound and isolated older adults across the country and giving them tablets and broadband access,” he says. “That can really ameliorate conditions, even in a situation like that.”

One option for older adults who want to stay in the community where they have friends and connections is to find a smaller, more accessible place, Firman says, “rather than gutting it out for the rest of their lives in their three- or four-bedroom home, where they’re now all by themselves.”

If you’re concerned about your parents, he suggests starting a conversation: “Does it really make sense for you to tough it out in the old homestead for the rest of your life? Or should you be thinking about a place where there’s less house to take care of, less yardwork to do? But also, where it would be easier to get help if you need it.'”

Many seniors do well living alone, Firman stresses. “All older people are lonely” is a stereotype, he says, one “that’s simply not true.” Loneliness is harder on 20-somethings than older adults, he adds. With maturity comes more ease being alone, he says — it’s a matter of being comfortable in your own skin.

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How Seniors Plow Through Lonely Winters originally appeared on usnews.com