A Group Study On The Alleviation Of Loneliness Among El Derly People Living Alone In Cities

With the deepening of the aging process in our country,the elderly work in our country is also developing constantly.As a special vulnerable group am ong the elderly,the solitary elderly need more attention from the public.At pre sent,although the elderly living alone in urban China have no worries about f ood and clothing,their mental health problems have not been paid attention to.Due to various reasons,the phenomenon of the elderly people’s sadness,empt iness,loneliness,depression and even suicide often appear in the media reports,which seriously affects the quality of their later years of life.This paper takes the mutual support group of "emotional warmth sunset" in B community of c hongqing city as an example,adopts the methods of questionnaire survey and i nterview,takes the social support theory and activity theory as the support,and studies the loneliness of the elderly living alone and its causes.Six group acti vities were designed around the self-cognition and social support system of the elderly living alone.The first section is the initial stage of the group,aiming t o clarify the group’s objectives,conclude a group contract,and establish a prel iminary professional relationship with the group members.The middle four grou p activities are the growth and development period of the group,aiming at hel ping members to feel lonely and obtain social support from children,peer grou ps and the community;Section 6 group activity is the end period of the group,which aims to summarize the whole content of the activity,consolidate the re sults of the group,share feelings and gains,encourage the group members to live an active life,reduce the generation of loneliness,and finally enhance the methods and skills to relieve loneliness of the elderly living alone,improve the quality of life,and spend a valuable old age.The results of this study found that loneliness was common among the el derly living alone in this community.There were significant differences in the degree of loneliness among the elderly living alone among different ages,educ ational background,physical health status,marriage,frequency of communicatio n with children,duration of children’s visit,and participation in community acti vities.Specifically,there are significant differences in the loneliness of elderly p eople living alone in different age groups.The loneliness of elderly people livi ng alone increases with the increase of age.There were significant differences i n loneliness scores among the elderly living alone with different educational ba ckgrounds,which showed that education background was negatively correlated with loneliness.There were significant differences in the loneliness of urban eld erly living alone in different health conditions.There are significant differences i n the communication frequency and interval time between children and children in the loneliness of urban elderly living alone.Specifically,the communication frequency of children is negatively correlated with the loneliness of elderly liv ing alone,while the interval time between children and the loneliness of elderl y living alone is positively correlated.There was a significant difference in the loneliness scores of elderly people living alone in different community activitie s.Elderly people living alone who often participated in community activities h ad higher loneliness scores than those who never participated in community act ivities and occasionally participated in community activities.This study also showed that factors affecting loneliness of urban elderl y living alone included physical health status,cognitive biases,support from fa mily and friends,low participation in community activities,and less cultural an d recreational activities.In this paper,the use of mutual assistance and support groups has played a great role in alleviating the loneliness of the elderly living alone in this community.First,the elderly living alone understand the causes and harms of loneliness,and regain their confidence in life through memorial therapy,thus changing the wrong cognition of aging and loneliness and enhanci ng their sense of accomplishment.Secondly,two-way communication and unders tanding between children and elderly people living alone are strengthened,and intimate relationship between them is enhanced.Third,the WeChat group of mu tual assistance and support has been established,which provides a platform for the elderly living alone to vent their negative emotions and carry out emotion al exchanges,and plays a large role in the mutual support of peer groups.Four th,through active participation in group or community activities,the sense of belonging and integration of the elderly living alone to the community were en hanced.Moreover,the loneliness of the elderly living alone was significantly r educed through work records,before and after measurements of loneliness and self-disclosure of group members.