A growing number of people 65 and older are living alone. While aging solo presents challenges, solutions are in the works.

Kent Ellsworth is the executive director of the Verde Valley Caregivers Coalition in Sedona.

“Out of the 3,000 individuals we’ve served over the last year or two, about 65% are living alone,” Ellsworth said.

Ellsworth says they’re also serving 10 individuals who are over the age of 100.

“And they’re all living alone,” Ellsworth said, either by choice or circumstance. Spouses die. But living alone can be challenging. “Yeah, especially living alone with chronic health conditions, living alone and not being able to drive, living alone and needing to get to long-distance locations just to get health care.”

Ellsworth says they recently saw a spike in requests for rides to medical providers.

“It just jumped up to about 14 to 15 per day. So, most of the medical care, especially access to specialty care providers, a lot of those folks are not here. They’re in the Phoenix area,” Ellsworth said, which means having a volunteer who can drive from the Verde Valley to Phoenix, wait for the appointment and drive back.

Innovative solutions

Living alone can also increase the risk of dementia. The ASU Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation got a $5.8 million grant to develop trials that look for behavior changes, as well as technology-enabled interventions.

Fang Yu is a professor and the Edson College Chair in Dementia Translational Nursing Science.

“So, the end goal is to improve cognition, physical functioning, quality of life, and emotional well-being. And with the ultimate goal down the road of preventing Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias,” Yu said.

Yu says they’re looking for study participants from around the world.

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