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The Socialist Municipal Group considers an updated census of the elderly who are alone in the municipality necessary.

For the PSOE, loneliness is a situation, most of the time, dramatic, which calls for a review of the social policies that are being developed in order for the elderly to have a more active life to avoid problems, almost all related With health.

Therefore, "if we want to address the problem in a real and effective way, we must first know its dimension and the factors that affect the emergence of loneliness," explains the socialist councilor Esther Nevado.

"The aging of society is a reality and every time life expectancy is greater, so it is urgent to design policies that contribute to the elderly being a dynamic and energetic age," said Nevado, who adds that "it is not the same live in solitude than being alone, because in many occasions you are surrounded by people but you do not feel accompanied.

In addition, he also states that "society has a debt with this group that is in a quiet period after dedicating its entire life to work and support their families, we must not contribute to their invisibility; therefore, the City of Murcia, as an administration closer to the citizen, it has to make a greater effort to assist them, to listen to them and to accompany them, and for this the first thing is to have that census with which we could elaborate a first diagnosis of this group. "

For the councilwoman, it is not only about expanding the places of day centers, of increasing in quantity and quality the activities of the nursing homes, but of developing programs that give them the opportunity to participate in initiatives in accordance with their interests or intergenerational coexistence.

"Of course, the participation of the elderly is a protective factor against the risk of loneliness and we are facing a group that can continue to contribute to society."

In this regard, he warns that "loneliness brings a lot of morbidity and diseases such as depression, aggravating others such as diabetes, infections or anxiety, which pose serious consequences for health, apart from other economic ones, because it forces you to consume many medications", and adds that "the main factor that ensures a good quality of life is to have social relations, therefore, it is essential to work from a preventive perspective."

For all these reasons, he insists on "a segmented census in which all the elderly people of the municipality are identified by age, by sex, by income and where it appears if they suffer from any type of dependency, because in the end, as in any other group, no you can treat these neighbors as a whole. "

Esther Nevado recalls that there are already studies that speak of "we run the risk that in a few years loneliness could become a global public health problem, therefore, the sooner we get to work, the sooner we can stop it."

Source: PSOE Murcia