socialize again
It’s been a long, lonely year for everyone. But with millions of older adults having received the new COVID-19 vaccines, their enforced social isolation can finally begin to ease. For family caregivers concerned about the health and welfare of their aging loved ones, this is great news.
The chance to begin resuming some degree of normal socialization will be good for the elderly. Ongoing social isolation or loneliness is known to have negative health consequences on seniors, including a higher risk of depression, death, and heart disease, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Even before the pandemic struck, according to the report, “an estimated 24% of adults 65 and older who live independently … were already suffering from isolation and loneliness.”
But as people begin to emerge from a year or more of social distancing, it benefits everyone to be cautious and continue to follow Centers of Disease Control guidance. Progress is being made, but the pandemic is still not over.
Even if fully vaccinated, encourage your loved ones to continue practicing basic COVID safety protocols in public: Wearing facemasks, frequent handwashing, and maintaining 6 feet of distance from anyone outside their household.
According to the CDC, to be considered fully vaccinated, individuals must wait:
- 2 weeks after their second dose in a 2-dose series (Pfizer or Moderna vaccines)
- 2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine (Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine)
If it has been less than two weeks since your loved ones received the last shot or if they have not received a second dose, they must continue practicing full prevention steps. The good news is that the CDC is advising that once fully vaccinated, individuals can safely visit with unvaccinated, low-risk people from a single household indoors, without wearing masks or having to be physically distanced.
Of course, they must be careful to continue practicing prevention measures when visiting people who are at increased risk from the coronavirus, people with unvaccinated household members who are at an increased risk, or unvaccinated people from multiple households.
This means:
- Wearing a well-fitted mask.
- Staying at least 6 feet from people who are from outside of their household.
- Avoiding large and medium-sized in-person gatherings.
Unfortunately, it’s still not the time to arrange any long-distance trips for older relatives to visit far away family. The CDC’s guidance continues to encourage avoiding nonessential travel. There are hopes from government officials that it could be safe to resume small gatherings of family and friends by July 4, but the outlook remains uncertain.
Even as advances continue to be made in the fight against COVID-19, an article that the AARP published at the height of the pandemic in mid-2020 offers advice that continues to be useful: “If you opt to hold off on in-person visits for now … be sure to find ways to stay connected to each other so that you're physically distant but not absent from each other's lives. You should also encourage your loved one to tap into a wider network of friends and relatives remotely.”
In the months ahead, the situation will continue to evolve. We hope we are at the beginning of the end of the enforced social isolation requirements. Keeping everyone healthy and safe, however, will require continued vigilance and consistent safety practices.
Once vaccinated, it will be safe to help older loved ones begin to socially interact with small groups of family members again. Encouraging regular socialization will help both their mental and physical health.