Florence Klein on Senior Loneliness

Florence Klein, author of "Under the Hat: Memoir of an Unstoppable Woman Trailblazer," joins Suzanne to talk about loneliness as a big concern for seniors. Florence says the solution is for seniors to live in inter-generational homes with young and old people living together. She also talks about social workers needing to be paid more and for seniors to make sure they go to the doctor.

Florence says, "The biggest need today is loneliness. And so what happens when seniors lose their friends, they lose their spouses or partners, their children may be across the country, across the world, and we don't have a sufficient reality, because people have put seniors into senior housing. Well, I disagree with that. I think that seniors should be intergenerational, and we should have intergenerational housing. And that means the young and the old. Maggie Kuhn years ago set up an intergenerational house with young people, maybe four or five bedrooms. And then I went to see her in Philadelphia. And it's amazing how they all work together. And even here in the west, there are still not enough intergenerational housing, the young and the old. 

"And if that is one of the major needs for today, the other need is, we need social workers to be paid more, and they're not unionized. And there's a shortage, and after all, we're all getting older. Not everybody is physically able. Who's going to help them. It used to be, families were all together. In Philadelphia, for instance, there was an Italian area, and in that Italian area in South Philadelphia, Italian people lived on the same block or two blocks next to each other. That isn't happening today even in Philadelphia. And so that is a need and can be cured through intergeneration.

"Also, we need to have people that are going to help seniors go to the doctors. Nobody takes you to the doctor. I just spoke to a friend this morning and she said, well, I got into the rotary club – we were talking my rotary club – and she says, well, I went up and fell on a bar stool off a bar stool. Well, it wasn't a bar stool, it was a stool that was putting up a light. And she called 911, and to this day, she called 911 and refused to go to the doctor. You need people to take you to the doctor, to acknowledge that you have to go. I'm working on something that I think will help remedy the situation, which I haven't totally put together yet. But it is something that I think is needed."

Learn more:
* Florence's website: https://florenceunderthehat.com/
* Under the Hat: Memoir of an Unstoppable Woman Trailblazer: https://florenceunderthehat.com/product/under-the-hat
* Books by Florence Klein: https://www.amazon.com/Books-Florence-Klein

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