Sonoma County programs aim to address alarming rates of senior isolation
A lifetime ago, academic Georgia Barrow would have understood acutely the benefits of the Adult Day Program she attends four days a week.
The 81-year-old Santa Rosa resident would have known the mental and physical benefits to seniors of a game of beachball volleyball, of abstract art drawing and singing along with peers to music.
After all, Barrow, who taught in the behavioral science department at Santa Rosa Junior College for 26 years and was a member of the Academic Senate, wrote the book on aging.
Literally.
But today, when asked about the Adult Day Program run by Council on Aging, the co-author of Aging, the Individual and Society does not articulate the power of community connection for older adults, the benefit of small motor skill activities as we age and the positives that come with easy body movements. She simply smiles and says it is fun, that the conversation is good, mainly because it's with "people who are in the same boat."
In the larger scheme, that boat is dealing with the negative effects of aging.
More specifically, for those like Barrow, it's a dementia diagnosis. For others, it's Alzheimer's.
"For her, it's a godsend," said Barrow's son-in-law, Jeff Brisbois of Windsor, of the adult day program. "We could have a caregiver that caters to her every whim, but it's the camaraderie here that she loves.
"She can't really remember the day-to-day stuff, but she knows she had fun," he said. "She goes home tired. She has fun."
That connection and community building are not just for fun. The intent of the Council on Aging program and so many other similar senior-focused activities is to address a growing, and sometimes deadly, trend in rates of isolation and loneliness among Sonoma County's older adults.
"Social disconnection is a global health crisis," said Dr. Parimala Selvan, a geriatrician at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa.
And it is particularly acute among the elderly. The fallout can be devastating.
"When you are lonely, you have poor health behavior, and you cannot achieve healthy behaviors," Selvan said.
This can include, but is not limited to, poor sleep habits, increased stress, mental health issues, decreased immunity - making the person more prone to illness - and reduced muscle mass that can increase the risk of falls.
The emerging problem, if not addressed early, could have far-reaching and devastating implications, advocates said.
In Sonoma County, the suicide rate for older adults between age 75 and 84 has increased by more than 50% since 2020. Older adults have the highest age-adjusted rates of suicide of all county residents, according to public health data.
Locally, about 140,000 of Sonoma County's approximately 485,000 residents - nearly 29% - are 60 years old or older, according to the California Department on Aging. That percentage is expected to increase to 35% by 2030.
And Sonoma County skews older than both the rest of the state and the nation. The median age in Sonoma County is 43 years old, according to the U.S. Census, older than the state median of 38 and the national median of 39 years old.
Across California, a separate survey found that 1 in 5 seniors age 65 or older currently living alone reported having no meaningful contact in the month of January. More than 60% of respondents said loneliness affected their physical or mental health, according to the same survey.
"This is a quiet catastrophe," said Susan Hsieh, Communications Manager with the Sonoma County Human Services Department. "Loneliness in older adults is like a slow-acting toxin."
Science backs up that assessment.
Seniors with fewer than one social contact per week had a greater decrease in volume in the part of the brain responsible for memory and learning than those who had four or more social contacts per week, according to the 2025 Neuron to Environmental Impact Across Generations Study in Japan. The part of the brain affected is what supports both long- and short-term memory and helps people gain awareness from the immediate environment. It is the same area that is at risk from underlying conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.
Isolation and loneliness are contributing factors to depression, a problem that can be crippling and even deadly.
"What's alarming for me is that, first of all, our aging population is growing, as we know," said Denise Johnson, director of senior nutrition and health services for the nonprofit Council on Aging. "Do we have all the resources ready and available to older adults?
"Depression and social isolation are all linked to falls," she said. "Because people who are depressed and socially isolated don't go outside, they are physically isolated. It's a vicious cycle. Their muscles are already weakened and they fall, and now they have this fear of falling, so they are even more sedentary."
And more sedentary means fewer walks outside to greet neighbors. Fewer drives in the car to social gatherings. And more time indoors, hours often spent alone.
"We all crave human contact and we all crave interaction and to be seen," Johnson said. "It's just part of being human."
‘We are social animals'
So consistent is Bill Bryant with his weekday lunch plans that a nameplate marks his spot.
Every weekday just before noon, Bryant, with the help of a caregiver, makes his way across the road from his apartment building and joins a table of regulars for a midday meal in the dining room of the Rohnert Park Senior Center.
The meal - on this day it is chicken, potatoes and carrots - is free. So, too, is the company.
But in many ways, it is priceless.
"We are social animals," Bryant, 85, says by way of explanation of his daily habit.
"Bill was the first person I met when I came here," said Glenda Lucchesi, 82, from her spot across the table from Bryant.
Lucchesi, too, is consistent. By her estimate, she and her husband of more than a half-century, Richard, 87, have been coming to this daily lunch for five or six years.
Usually, when the Lucchesis arrive, Richard sits down at a table away with a couple of other regulars, while Glenda and Bryant take their spots in the center of the room, picking up their easy conversation. But on this day, Richard joins them.
"It breaks the monotony of sitting at home with him," Glenda said, smiling, explaining their daily ritual. "It's for the social part."
It turns out that more than the food, what Lucchesi describes as "the social part" is the secret ingredient to this Council on Aging-sponsored lunch service.
In fact, while her husband clears his plate, Glenda Lucchesi barely touches her food. She is instead nourished by the steady banter of conversation throughout the lunch hour.
‘This is a wellness check'
Finding these places of connection can sometimes be the hardest part for seniors who are in many ways cut off from accessing information, whether it's a technology issue or something related to mobility.
"The biggest … thing we can do is build awareness," Hsieh said. "It's about neighbors looking out for neighbors. They are going to be the first line of communication that older adults are going to rely on."
Family, friends and neighbors can all be enlisted to build a network for older adults to feel connected to the community, said Shelly Keenan-Kalmer, a licensed clinical social worker at Kaiser Permanente.
"First and foremost is calling and checking on your loved ones regularly," she said. "Or asking neighbors to stop in regularly, getting a friend or neighbor to engage a loved one in attending a fun event that is happening at our local senior centers or community events that are happening. … (It) is the regular contact, even if it's over the phone."
Options are available in Sonoma County. It's a matter of connecting people to programs, they said.
Johnson and the Council on Aging are working to shore up funding to keep the PEARLS program going in a modified format, after a $3 million, three-year state grant expires at the end of the month. A $50,000 donation from Community First Credit Union, $15,000 from the Community Foundation Sonoma County, as well as a combined $15,000 from two private donors are pushing the program to Johnson's goal of $200,000, she said.
Developed by the University of Washington, the PEARLS program is overseen by a licensed clinical social worker and links clients with a trained coach whose goal is to empower the client to create personalized action plans. Moving forward, the program is expected to have a full-time coach, a licensed clinical social worker and trained volunteers.
"A lot of times when people are socially isolated and depressed, they don't go out and do the things they love to do," Johnson said.
Coaches help clients find and reach out to resources in the community. Oftentimes, that begins with the Sonoma County Aging and Disability resource hub where information spans from legal advice to caregiver resources and social services. The coach doesn't make the calls, but hopefully empowers the client to take action themselves, Johnson said.
That way, the benefits are twofold.
"What we do is early intervention. It's a prevention tool so that it doesn't lead to crisis," Johnson said. "We want it to be sustainable for the client. When you do something on your own, you feel much more empowered. That is the whole model of it, really get them to break down their goals into bite-sized pieces."
West County Community Services runs a peer counseling program through which seniors support one another in navigating problems and life adjustments, as well as the development of coping skills.
Food access programs, including Meals on Wheels and Drive-up Pick-up frozen meals, can offer seniors both nutritious food and regular check-ins with providers.
"We can't deliver a meal without seeing a person," Johnson said of Meals on Wheels deliveries. "Because this is a wellness check. (The program) has saved lives because (the client) has fallen."
The Multipurpose Senior Services Program in the county's Adult & Aging Division offers resources for seniors over 65 who are trying to live at home rather than a care facility.
Even for those who don't yet consider themselves in the category of "older," building community is a solid step toward fending off the onset of loneliness as we age, Keenan-Kalmer said.
"Creating a community is going to benefit all of us as we age," she said, adding that it can mean family, friends, religious communities, hobby-based communities and other chosen groups that can and do constitute community.
"I think that what is happening in our community and across the country is that families have spread out so much that many people are left without their own family of origin to help them as they are aging," she said.
But advocates acknowledge that the challenges to building connection can intensify with age. Limited mobility, unease with technology and physical constraints can make even simple outings more difficult.
"Getting out and socializing becomes much more challenging," Keenan-Kalmer said. "It's just difficult to get out and about."
For Glenda and Richard Lucchesi, that challenge is alleviated to a degree because Glenda still drives.
They have a standing weekly visit to the Graton Resort and Casino, their daily lunches at the senior center and sometimes they will stay for some of the activities offered there.
Bryant, too, sometimes extends his stay after lunch. Sometimes it is to take a Santa Rosa Junior College-affiliated class. Sometimes it's to watch a movie - "The Bicycle Thief" was showing on this day - but Bryant said he likes to keep his options open.
Mostly to chat.
"There is a storytelling class that meets," he said. "But I can't write. I am there as a kibitzer."
And it turns out kibitzing can be life-sustaining, advocates said.
Shirryl Bayless has been a site coordinator of the Adult Day Program in downtown Santa Rosa for six years. A typical day can include coffee chats, an art activity, music, lunch and what Bayless described as light exercise in disguise.
On this day, she had her clients "baking a pie." Under Bayless's direction, the clients would reach above their heads to "pick apples," then semi-vigorously "chop apples," before using their hands and forearms to "roll the dough."
Meeting clients' social and creative needs in an engaging way can be life-sustaining, Bayless said.
"It keeps them going longer," she said. "They don't go into all the detrimental things and the failure to thrive. If it gets too bad, they don't want to go on, don't see a purpose in their lives. It's a cycle of depression."
But here, she said, there is singing, a bit of gregarious shouting and lots of laughter. A bonus piece, organizers said, is that the class gives care partners a break.
"It's fantastic. It's so welcoming," said Barbara Triol, a sexagenarian who has been coming about one day a week for a little more than a year. "It makes me laugh and makes me feel like I belong somewhere. It's like a big, giant blanket that gets wrapped around you."
But even in the face of daunting rates of suicide and depression, the issue could be even more acute than statistics show simply because of the nature of the problem and the cresting wave of aging baby boomers.
"You worry about the people you don't know about. Are they less likely to come forward?" Hsieh said.
Hsieh also pointed to a shift in attitude among seniors. The oldest among us are historically less inclined to turn to government programs for help, she said. Baby boomers? That is a generation that understands government to be a resource, Hsieh said.
"If that is true, we need to get our bootstraps on and we need to be ready for the demand," she said.
The key, advocates like Johnson said, is finding ways for seniors to access social programs before they fall, before they develop a health crisis and before their capacity for community diminishes beyond repair.
"I'm going to be the person who is the squeaky wheel," she said. "The homebound and the unseen, that is who I am advocating for. They don't get a seat at the table. Are we just going to wait until everything is a crisis? Do you know what our emergency rooms are going to look like?"
How to find resources
There is a vast array of programs focused on seniors in Sonoma County. Here are a few:
The Sonoma County Adult Aging and Disability Resource Hub is a catch-all for a variety of support services: www.www.socoadrh.org
Seniors can reach a trained social worker through the Sonoma County Adult & Aging Division at 707-565-INFO.
Seniors in Petaluma can access a variety of resources through Petaluma People Services: www.petalumapeople.org
Council on Aging is hosting a fundraiser for the PEARLS program from 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 16, at Homerun Pizza, 484 Larkfield Center in Santa Rosa.
Council on Aging offers a variety of meal delivery, social and advocacy programs at www.councilonaging.com
The Person Senior Wing at Finley Community Center offers daily classes and activities: www.srcity.org/2112/Person-Senior-Wing
Friendly Voices provides seniors a weekly, confidential phone conversation in a variety of languages: www.friendlyvoices.org
You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Instagram @kerry.benefield.
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