SOCIAL ISOLATION
THE BIG CHALLENGE
How might we use technology and/or community-based interventions to mitigate social isolation among elderly individuals, fostering meaningful connections and enhancing their overall well-being?
In Singapore, loneliness amongst seniors is a rising problem for a society that advocates for self-reliance and independence. In fact, the impact of loneliness is not only for seniors living alone or single seniors, but also impact the seniors living in multi-generational households based on a study conducted by the Centre for Ageing Research and Education (CARE) at Duke-NUS Medical School in 2016 & 2017.
Tackling Loneliness of Seniors
When you dive into this project, you'll be all about understanding what the seniors in our community are going through. We're talking about chatting with them to hear their stories, the ups, and the downs of dealing with loneliness. Then, it's time to put on your thinking cap and come up with some new ideas to help them out.
Connecting in a Digital World
Another aspect to explore is discovering what's holding our seniors back from embracing the digital world. There's so much they can do with technology like virtual reality, social media, and apps, but many are hesitant or feel left out. Why is this happening and what can we do about it?
Curious questions
When thinking whether to work on this theme, some questions to consider are:
What are the reasons for seniors being lonely or socially isolated in the community or even while living their own families?
How can the closer communities come together to provide social and emotional support to the seniors in Singapore?
What do I know about technology and how can we use it to built better connections with different generations?