If one third of residents won’t be seen this month, will we notice?
It’s been just over two years since the World Health Organisation called loneliness a global public health concern. The impact is huge. They compare it to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
For older adults, loneliness comes with a 50% higher risk of dementia and a 30% higher risk of coronary artery disease or stroke.
Two years on, what’s shifted?
Locally? Not much. Same government. A new Aged Care Act. As of this week, children under 16 can’t use social media. And yet loneliness hasn’t moved. It’s still sitting quietly in our villages and communities, often in plain sight, affecting the older Australians who call those places home.
Earlier this year we shared an article from our sector colleague Roger Pallant, president of the NSW Retirement Village Residents Association. In The Age of Loneliness, he wrote:
“For those living in retirement villages… it’s completely natural to experience loneliness – even when surrounded by neighbours.”
Natural, yes. Acceptable, no.
Our role as custodians
Let’s talk about that word: custodian.
A custodian is someone trusted to look after something valuable that belongs to someone else. They keep it safe. They stay accountable. They make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
When we talk about village professionals as custodians, we’re saying something simple and important: we’re the ones who help protect residents’ wellbeing. Not by fixing every problem, but by noticing, caring, and acting when something isn’t quite right. During Village Summit, Marcus Pearce spoke to this idea – the influence we have, and how far it can reach.
And this time of year tests that more than any other.
Think about December. You’ll probably see two thirds of your residents at some point – through activities, Christmas parties, or casual drop-ins. But what about the other third? The ones who don’t show up. The ones you realise, as you’re driving home, you haven’t seen in weeks.
Years ago a manager told me, “You can’t boil the ocean.” Checking in on every resident can feel like that – an impossible, endless task.
So if you can’t boil it, what can you do?
You build a simple strategy. One that’s realistic. When you next walk the village, do you knock on the doors of the people you haven’t seen lately? Can you involve your admin, maintenance, or sales colleagues so the responsibility doesn’t fall on one set of shoulders? Can you aim – collectively – to make sure every resident gets a human check-in before you head off for Christmas?
If loneliness is the new pandemic, and we accept our role as custodians of resident wellbeing, then the opportunity- and responsibility – is ours. This is the time of year when loneliness hits hardest for many older Australians.
So here’s the challenge:
So here’s the challenge:
What will you do, in the next few weeks, to reach out to the people you haven’t seen?
Over to you.
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