Social isolation, particularly among the elderly, is fast becoming a serious problem in many western societies and the problem isn’t necessarily related to geographic distance. In fact, some of the saddest examples of lonely lives and deaths have been found in some of our most built-up locations.
One of the leading stories on the ABC just the other day was one about Japan’s growing numbers of older and often poor or penniless people who are dying alone. So isolated have some of them become, that often a death can take a while to be discovered and, in many cases, workers at some of the funeral homes are often the only ones there to mourn at the funerals.
More and more often, the government has been forced to step in and pay for funerals for those without family or relatives and this is not necessarily in isolated areas either. It is happening in the major cities as well.
The story is a sad one but Japan is not alone. Similar stories have regularly emerged from other western countries in recent years including the UK and Australia.
In July last year, the BBC ran a story very similar to this one that told of the growing numbers of people dying alone and penniless in the UK where councils were often jumping in to pick up the tab.
The BBC article Funerals without any Mourners tracked an alarming trend in the UK for many people to live in complete isolation, even in some rather built up areas with some people not even being discovered for weeks, even months after they have passed away.
One man had not been discovered for fourteen months and then the discovery was only made by the landlords after they had initiated eviction procedures because his rent hadn’t been paid for more than a year.
Similar cases in Australia prompted the Australian government into action a while back. In June 2008, Australia’s Minister for Ageing announced protocols that were being proposed for several projects in community aged care and significant funding for them after several cases of undiscovered deaths had made headline news.
These included the case of a 64-year-old Sydney man being discovered a year after his death in his flat and three elderly people being dead in their homes for more than six months before they were found.
In response, $4.2 million was injected into programs to reduce isolation of older Australians and provide emergency meals and accommodation for those in need of it. Programs may be of assistance but perhaps the problems go more to the heart of modern day culture. Fast and busy lives have excused us from social responsibility.
Any social scientist will give us multiple reasons for this social isolation. An ageing population with smaller families than in previous generations is one suggested cause. Researchers in the UK recently suggested that the divorce trend over the past few decades had left a lot of men in particular isolated from their children and families.
Money, or rather, having very little of it adds a lot of salt to the wound too but there are all types of social problems that can lead someone to isolation including mental health issues, an emotional event in one’s life such as the death of a loved one or even losing a job, or it could be rejection by family or friends.
Of course some people just prefer to be disconnected. In fact, most of us at one time or other through the course of our lives has probably felt this way. Some of us have acted on it. Others have just let the urge pass.
There are others who have probably hit bad times and never recovered from them. According to the ABC article on Japan’s empty funerals, 57-year-old Hioshi Yamanochi was one of them. His body was undiscovered for weeks and his cousin Kiataka Sato could not find any numbers at all in his mobile phone.
The recession 20 years ago finished off Yamanochi’s once successful building business leaving him broke and broken. He had a total of 596 yen ($A7.00) when he died and aside from Sato there were only two other people to mourn for him at the funeral.
Urban isolation was examined back in July in 2007 when a survey was conducted by the Tokyo Min-Iren Association. It concluded that the growing isolation of the elderly was particularly rife among those of low financial status. Urban dwellers, the survey found, were far more vulnerable to social isolation than their rural counterparts who have far more social ties and community links.
Not all those suffering isolation are necessary old or elderly either. Hioshi Yamanochi was 57, hardly old by today’s standards. His case illustrates just how easily events can take away more than a livelihood. They can actually take away a life.
It is a sad indictment on societies that pride themselves on being sophisticated. We now have all the technology that can keep us connected if we choose to be. The trouble is, we need to know that people actually want us to connect to them. Yamanochi had a mobile phone. The sad thing is, he had no-one to call on it.
Sourced:
www.abc.net.au; www.reuters.com; www.guardian.co.uk; www.bbc.co.uk.
