A look at the elderly

The community project Radars, promoted by the Social Services of the City Council, has just been presented in Barceloneta with the aim of acting and trying to alleviate the effects of unwanted loneliness of the elderly in the neighbourhood and prevent risk situations. The coordination of Radares in Barceloneta is carried out through a neighbourhood network formed by neighbours, businesses, pharmacies, volunteers, associations, organizations and services that are attentive to the daily dynamics of the elderly people in their environment. Whenever they detect any important changes in their lives, they contact Radares. The neighbourhood health centres are also involved in this detection.

In Barceloneta, as in the rest of Barcelona’s neighbourhoods, the loneliness of the elderly is a real and obvious fact: 

• More than one fifth of Barcelona’s population is over 65 years old.
  
  
• Forty percent of people over 85 live alone.

Many of these people have become lonely and often fall into isolation. In addition, there are architectural barriers in many buildings in the neighbourhood, which increase the feeling of loneliness. Involvement of the neighbourhood community to combat loneliness Radares addresses this unwanted loneliness by involving the entire community to link these people to collective life, encouraging the relationship between the elderly who want to participate and volunteers from all age groups, through regular calls to establish a relationship of trust, joint outings to promote the relationship, making them participate in the activities and festivities held in the neighbourhood, and detecting through stores, pharmacies and also neighbourhood members, possible risk situations that the elderly may have.