If one thinks most often of the isolation of the elderly when we talk about family estrangement, this can also affect children and working adults. Focus on a particularly widespread western scourge.

From the first beating of his heart, in his mother’s womb, the baby perceives his emotions, his serenity or on the contrary, his stress. After a few months, he hears his daddy’s voice and the different intonations of those close to him. The family is therefore both the cradle of emotions but also and above all of social and moral landmarks. Affective stimuli and parental respect for the child are all factors that will influence his adult personality.

This same pattern is repeated as long as the children decide to become parents in their turn. A strong emotional and moral chain is then created between members of the same family, making isolation often difficult to bear.

Expatriation, refugee crisis, jobs that require significant family estrangement, cases of isolation are much more numerous than we think. This remoteness can in certain cases lead to trough. When it is diagnosed, support and family reunification can represent effective solutions.

Children can also experience isolation or family estrangement. Divorce or separation of the two parents can indeed lead to forced separation from one of the two parents (especially when the latter is an expatriate or lives in a very distant geographical area). The boarding school during studies is also experienced by some as a particularly difficult family estrangement to live with.

The elderly are undoubtedly the most affected by isolation. This can be explained quite simply by a slow and progressive detachment from the social environment, outside the family framework.

Indeed, the elderly no longer work and generally prefer to devote themselves to their families (especially with the arrival of small children). The colleagues whom they met almost daily are forgotten or at least, meetings are increasingly rare. Contacts with friends are also less frequent since the latter are also taken up by their family occupations.

Years go by and some physical disabilities appear. The elderly isolate themselves more and see their friends less and less. Over 80, in addition to her family, she is often content with a few exchanges with neighbors, traders and a few service providers. After 85 years, the number of interlocutors decreases, especially when the elderly person is dependent and unable to move around on their own.

Like social isolation, family isolation is progressive. Children are active, do not always live in the same city or region, while small children are adults (often still students). Whether at home or in an institution, there are solutions to help the elderly push back against loneliness.

If they wish to stay at home, the isolated elderly person can be helped through:

• Local service networks (meal delivery, home medical care, etc.).
• Transport services for the elderly to promote sociability and mobility.
• Volunteer associations that offer companionship to the elderly (home visits, games, reading workshops, cooking, gymnastics, etc.).
• Social clubs and cafes to encourage meetings between the elderly.
• Home help for housework, shopping, dog walking, etc.
• Foreign students who occupy a room in the house in exchange for company and small services.
• The EHPAs (Establishments Housing Elderly People) offer to maintain a certain autonomy (studio life for example) while enjoying the advantages of supervised collective life.
• The EHPAD (Accommodation Establishment for Dependent Elderly People) welcome, accompany and take care of the elderly.
• The USLDs (Long-Term Care Units for the Elderly in Hospital) take care of the most dependent people.

There are many associations that come to the aid of the elderly and isolated, do not hesitate to inquire at your town hall.

Several institutions also make it possible to avoid loneliness while relieving immediate family who are not always available.

Isolation or family estrangement is an extremely difficult period to live with, especially when it seems irreversible (hence the fairly recurrent complaints of the elderly who suffer from loneliness). Taking effective measures to help them allows them to age in serenity and to reduce their anxieties.