Loneliness is a pressing social issue for older people globally. Despite this, there is a paucity of studies on how older people themselves perceive loneliness and how service providers can support them. This study sought to address the gap using in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 60 older people and eight focus groups with aged care service providers in Australia in 2007. A purposive sampling strategy was employed to incorporate maximum participant variation. People 65 years and over were recruited from four large service providers in two Australian states. Our findings show that loneliness is influenced by private, relational and temporal dimensions and whether older people feel that they have, or are seen by others as having, a sense of connectedness with the wider community. Participants expressed the importance of maintaining social contact and having a sense of connection and belonging to the community. Our study highlights both the significance of gathering the views of older people to generate an understanding about loneliness and the need to recognise loneliness as a diverse and complex experience, bound to the context in which it is understood and perceived and not synonymous with social isolation. Such an understanding can be used to both evaluate and improve upon programmes that address loneliness and to help maintain an integration of older people in the community.

This statistic is concerning as the Australian population (and that of other developed countries) is ageing and, as such, the issue

Better refinement of care that takes into account the potential for loneliness and an understanding of premorbid social tendency may assist in the implementation of individualised and evidence-based strategies to assist people with dementia to lead a better quality of life. To maintain well-being, the social needs of the person with dementia as well as the family need to be considered.

Clinical guidelines for the processes surrounding the alteration of medication dose forms and relevant pharmaceutical information are needed in all residential homes for older people. Ongoing education for nurses in this area is also required.