Christmas may be a time of joy and togetherness for many people, but for the elderly, especially those who are homebound or living alone, advocates say holidays can intensify feelings of depression and social isolation.
The village of Matteson’s check-in campaign, a collaboration between the village and Rich Township to make sure seniors have social contact, aims to fight those feelings of isolation and keep elderly residents from slipping through the cracks.
The goal is ensure senior citizens feel they are “needed and wanted and a part of this overall society,” said Mayor Sheila Chalmers-Currin.
Rich Township Supervisor Calvin Jordan said he had family members who had struggled with mental health around the holidays.
“Thanksgiving and Christmas is a tough time,” Jordan said. “You get people, before, where Thanksgiving meant a lot, but lose a brother, lose a sister or lose a mom, and it’s not the same anymore. But when you get them involved, it makes a huge difference.”
While the main component of the program is a messaging campaign encouraging people to reach out to and check in on their neighbors, Chalmers-Currin and Jordan are also organizing social events for seniors, such as a luncheon this past Tuesday at Ridgeland Senior Living.
Chalmers-Currin recalled one veteran telling her “I have no family. I have no husband, no children, and if I didn’t have you guys to reach out to me, what would I do?”
“To hear that from anyone makes me sad,” Chalmers-Currin said.
Yollanda Thompson, a Matteson resident and recent retiree, said those sorts of outreach efforts are very important to her.
“They keep us activated,” Thompson said. “You don’t have to stay at home. There’s always something for us to do.”
As part of the campaign, officials recorded videos to run on the local access channel encouraging people to check on their older neighbors.
Matteson Village Trustee Carolyn Palmer checks in with an attendee Tuesday at a Christmas senior social at Ridgeland Senior Living. (Evy Lewis/Daily Southtown)
“Everybody doesn’t have money to give, but a simple phone call, a simple text, a simple check-in can go a long way in order to combat those sort of ailments, and then ultimately to reduce suicide,” said Deputy Village Administrator Keith Chambers. “Suicides in the surburban, south suburban area have been up over the last couple years.”
A report on suburban suicide rates released by the Cook County Department of Public Health in October found that while suicide rates in the suburbs as a whole are lower than national averages, racial and ethnic disparities are growing, with the suicide rate among Black residents having more than doubled in the last five years.
“My daily business is the funeral business,” said Matteson Village Trustee Stacy Leak, who works at his family’s business, Leak and Sons Funeral Home. “So unfortunately, I have seen the results of people not checking in.”
Pathlights, a nonprofit based in Palos Heights, runs several programs that support and provide social contact to senior citizens in the south and southwest suburbs, including home meal delivery.
Soul musician Joe Barr sings Tuesday at Ridgeland Senior Living. (Evy Lewis/Daily Southtown)
“A lot of these seniors who qualify for the home-delivered meals program, they are homebound,” said Lily Becker, a Pathlights social worker and program manager. “When someone is homebound, they’re not getting out, they’re not going to the grocery store, they’re not going to church likely.”
Because of that, Becker said, home meal deliveries also function as well-being checks.
“I think it can be easy to forget those that are socially isolated around the holidays, because we are thinking about our own families, our own friends. You might not think about that neighbor down the street,” Becker said. “It’s so lonely if you don’t have family, and there’s a lot of clients we have who don’t have family in Illinois.”
Social isolation can be particularly pressing for people with memory issues, Becker said, who may become confused or distressed in public and so often don’t get the chance to go out. Pathlights implemented memory cafes, safe spaces where people with dementia and their caregivers can come and socialize in an understanding environment.
Attendees queue up for lunch, including chicken and catfish, at Ridgeland Senior Living on Tuesday. (Evy Lewis/Daily Southtown)
Like Chalmers-Currin, Becker said the best thing people can do is check in on their neighbors.
“People should maybe think to check in a little bit more on maybe a stranger, or someone that you notice that doesn’t maybe leave their home often,” Becker said. “You can just knock on their door, and say ‘hey, how are you? I’m so-and-so, I just want to check in.’”
The goal of all Pathlights’ senior programs, Becker said, is to combat the negative effects of isolation, most notably depression and cognitive decline. Social isolation can increase the risk of dementia by up to 60%, according to the Alzheimer’s Society.
Isolation can also increase the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity, and weaken the immune system, while older adults who are socially isolated are more likely to drink to excess, smoke, avoid exercise and have insomnia, according to Pathlights.
“Any of us could be in that position at some point in our lives,” Chalmers-Currin said. “So I’m hoping that what we’re doing for them now, someone will do for me later.”
elewis@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/18/south-suburban-programs-senior-isolation-holidays/
