OT helps community-dwelling older adults with loneliness

Last year, my friend’s 74-year-old mother lost her husband. Though it was anticipated, her mother was devastated. It did not take long for this spritely, active woman to become socially withdrawn, declining invitations to lunch at her favorite restaurant or take daily walks with her neighborhood buddies, and she even ceased visiting her grandchildren. A month later, my friend finally saw her mom and barely recognized her—emaciated and unkempt in a house of disarray. She called me, panicked, asking, “What do I do?”