Loneliness in Elderly and Caregiver Beside Them

The useful part

Every year, we talk about memory loss, forgetting names, repeating questions, getting lost, behavioural changes and the progressive loss of independence. We talk about diagnosis, medicines, brain health and the importance of early recognition. There is another symptom of dementia that rarely appears in a prescription.

How it works

• The caregiver knows their name, their medicines, their food preferences, their fears, their appointments and increasingly, their entire world.
• This is the strange tragedy of dementia: one person's memory fades, while another person's memories become unbearably heavy.
• A national Indian study estimated dementia prevalence among people aged 60 years and above in Jammu and Kashmir at 11.04%, higher than the national estimate of 7.43%.
• These are population estimates, not a diagnosis for every older person, but they are a powerful reminder that dementia deserves much greater attention in our communities.
• The house may still be full of people, yet the person with dementia can become socially isolated.

What to take from it

Family members may stop taking the person out because "they won't understand anyway." Friends may quietly disappear. Eventually, the person who once occupied the centre of family life can become a silent presence in the corner of the room.

Details worth keeping

Sometimes, it is not the person with dementia who is most lonely. A person with dementia may forget that you visited yesterday. They may forget the conversation you had five minutes ago.