Looking At The State’s Proposed Transportation Budget, Wisconsin Life on Wisconsin Public Television, The Loneliness Epidemic

Air Date:
Heard On Central Time

Loneliness has now become an epidemic among older adults. We talk to a doctor about the negative impacts of loneliness on our health and how we can fight it. We also learn about the new Wisconsin Life series on Wisconsin Public Television and hear what advocates think needs to be done to improve the state’s transportation budget.

Featured in this Show

  • Treating Loneliness As A Public Health Concern

    Loneliness is an experience many people will deal with at one point or another in their life. The ache of longing for company and the sadness of feeling alone can be devastating to the person going through a bout of loneliness.

    Furthermore, admitting you’re lonely can feel embarrassing. While being lonely may feel as though it’s squarely in the mind, new research indicates it can have a profound impact on your health, both mentally and physically. And while loneliness can impact people at any age, research is showing it can have a significant impact on senior citizens.

    Geriatrician Carla Perissinotto is among those in the medical community saying it’s time to treat loneliness as a public health problem. She’s also an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and focuses on complex illnesses affecting older adults.

    Perissinotto said she began studying loneliness as a factor in her patients’ health when she was a resident. She noticed even as conditions such as blood pressure or cholesterol improved, many of her patients weren’t getting better.

    Since many of her patients were older they were undergoing profound life changes, such as entering retirement or losing a spouse, she wondered if isolation was affecting her patients in a way that wasn’t being taken into consideration. But while she had a hunch, it wasn’t always easy getting her patients to admit they were lonely.

    “There was absolutely a reluctance, I think, in a general sense,” Perissinotto said. “In general, anything related to mental health and personal feelings sometimes is still stigmatized, unfortunately. So many people still feel uncomfortable talking about.”

    But while she admitted that people have a hard time acknowledging their loneliness, she has found once the conversation is open about the feeling, people are more likely to confide in her. However, throughout her conversations with her patients and with the community, she noticed something complicates our ideas of loneliness: Many of the people who said they felt lonely, weren’t alone — many of the people were living with a spouse.

    This realization showed Perissinotto that loneliness is more complex than simply not having interactions with people. She said the discovery helps her create individualized treatments plans in order to lessen her patients’ feelings of loneliness.

    But loneliness doesn’t just impact a person’s mental health, it has been found to plague their physical health as well.

    “In other research, there are more specific risks, such as an increased risk of heart problems; and an increased risk of death, from my own research,” Perissinotto said. “And we’re starting to see a lot more (of) this problem as it’s starting to be taken more seriously and realizing that it isn’t something to be ignored.”

    And for older people, the effects can be particularly difficult as the potential loss of autonomy takes a toll on their psyche.

    “From a health care perspective, for me, and what I see in my patients is that loneliness increases their risk of losing their independence,” Perissinotto said. “Ultimately, that has a huge impact on someone’s quality of life. And it actually has a huge impact on health care dollars because of increased need for equipment or potential risk for nursing home admission.”

    Perissinotto noted a big question future research into loneliness will look at is how loneliness can impact someone over a lifetime, and how the experience of occasional loneliness compares to someone who feels chronically lonely.

  • State's Proposed Transportation Budget Needs Work, Says Transportation Advocacy Group

    Last week, Governor Scott Walker unveiled his new transportation budget. While some people hailed the plan, others felt it didn’t go far enough in providing adequate funding. Joining us to talk about what they think needs to be improved on is Craig Thompson, Executive Director of the Transportation Development Association.

  • A New Season Of Wisconsin Life On WPT

    Wisconsin Public Television is launching a new season of Wisconsin Life. We get a preview of some of the fascinating stories covered, including a Shakespeare therapy program for veterans with PTSD and addiction, and an artist who carves wooden Mardi Gras masks.

Episode Credits

  • Veronica Rueckert Host
  • Veronica Rueckert Producer
  • J. Carlisle Larsen Producer
  • Judith Siers-Poisson Producer
  • Carla Perissinotto Guest
  • Craig Thompson Guest
  • Trevor Keller Guest

Related Stories