Healing the Epidemic of Isolation for Senior Citizens | Elissa Altman | TEDxUniversityofNevada

Author and food blogger Elissa Altman explains the importance sharing time at the dinner table with senior citizens. Sharing food and stories with our senior citizens nourishes not only their bodies, but also their whole hearts, spirits, and souls.
Award-winning memoirist Elissa Altman first began to speak publicly about the moral imperative to “close the circle” - to bring senior citizens to the public table and discourse about food - in her 2011 Huffington Post column, Beyond The Schoolyard. Altman writes the monthly Washington Post column, Feeding My Mother, and is the author of the critically-acclaimed memoir, Poor Man’s Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking, based on her James Beard Award-winning blog of the same name. A five-time selectee for inclusion in the annual Best Food Writing, Altman focuses much of her writing on issues of moral, spiritual, gustatory, and creative sustenance; her next memoir, Treyf: A Story of Family, Food, and the Forbidden, will be published in 2016 by Berkley Books. Her work has appeared everywhere from the New York Times and Oprah Magazine to Tin House, Dame Magazine, and Saveur. She lives in Newtown, Connecticut with her family.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@conscious3714]

What seniors need more than food and drinks is love, respect, compassion and people to share their feelings and stories with them.

[@lindaleelaw5277]

Vidya Babla excuse me, but respect? Denver is leading in rudeness.

[@lindaleelaw5277]

Vidya Babla actually I need more food stamps

[@prayerworks11]

As a senior, your exactly right..

[@revivingmind879]

Thank you for this talk Elissa! This is very inspirational and an eye-opening talk. The feeling of loneliness and isolation is a real problem specially for our older adults as our children would have their own family and their own thing. However, it is not something that we blame on them. It reminded me of our goal in reviving mind, we want that people would not feel that they are excluded. They should feel that they are still part of something, that they are never alone. This is very a heart warming talk, Elissa. It is not the material and tangible things that we are looking forward to. We are all here for love, care, and respect for each other!

[@janekihm5119]

Elissa, you are gifted with the usage of words, spoken and written. Your natural talent is appreciated as you gently inspire the human race to be more caring. I understand ‘Tribal Fire.’

[@Mary-xo7go]

I have often thought that I should have kept my house and turned it into a refuge for older women. We could have lived together in comfort and hopefully in peace while looking after and taking care of each other. So many of us live on a shoestring budget, or in the homes of our children with whom we have little in common.

[@beachgirl9823]

I really enjoyed this. My mother recently moved into our home due to ill health so will remember this and implement it as sometimes we just eat over the sink while my mother always sits at the table and eats. We are always rushing around...will slow down and take this into consideration. Thank you.

[@rhondahernandez3761]

This is such an important and REAL problem. I relate to everything Elissa says here. The dinner table, though routine and yes, perhaps mundane, was the ONE place our family was together. When we all left to go our own ways...she's right, Gram was left alone. Weekend visits, occasional special meals...but the regular day to day...she was alone. And hearing this makes me sad. Very sad, especially when I think back and relive the fact that she died alone too. Loved, without doubt, but that doesn't change the fact that she was alone. A non-driver from a very small town w/o senior transportation or senior community gatherings...this scourge was a very real thing. This is sooooo important....please share.

[@KaarenAllynFOMO]

Elissa rocks. Can't wait to read TREYF

[@narelleworks8448]

It doesn't start at the magical age of 65. When my kids left home, I was in my late 40s, I'll health, no job, and utterly alone. "Friends" are those familiar people who serve behind counters at grocery stores. Even they are disappearing behind self serve checkouts. Now in my late 50s I live with my youngest and her hubby. We rarely share meals together. Mostly it's for birthdays and as usual I have very little to share that isn't my past because the recent past is filled with a lot of nothing. It's that way because my health continues to make predictability almost impossible. I love them dearly but I don't feel anymore part of their lives if I were a stranger. I envy those they visit, they spend a few hours a month, not a few minutes a week. I don't expect to the centre of their world. For the most part I enjoy doing my own thing. If I could cook properly then maybe... if I were more interesting... if I were great at story telling or telling jokes... I wonder how many are in my kind of isolation too. I imagine there are as many as there are in the seniors category. It makes a staggering number of isolated people in our modern world.

[@Annizz1991]

I think this has to do with 'modern' family life now. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot more distractions out there and families seem to spend less time together. It is very sad to hear that you feel this way though, and I hope you talk to your youngest to speak about your feelings. I am pretty sure they don't want you to feel unwanted.

[@YJ88Y]

i am so sooo sorry for you feeling this way ! i cried reading your comment , i feel lonely at the age of 26 and its scares me to grow up to face this problem , reading your words made me realize that this is might be the biggest issue that we will suffer if we continue with this life style . families are aparts time is fast , we should do somethings about it . i hope you are in good health and safe and loved during this pandemic , all the love and care for you .

[@lwatchorn]

Amazing, well presented information. Thank you. You put such an important message across so well and while it touched my heart, it also tickled my sense of humour. Again, thank you!

[@VeronicaGalvan-de-Unda]

Poor eating and poor relationships make us weak and as time passes, we will lose health and family engagement. I wonder how these two factors combined start and accelerate emotional death and eventually physical death.

[@lindaleelaw5277]

This speaks to seniors saying " I want assisted suicide " . Why keep us alive, on meds, and forced socialization, ? Unless I can get a career going, I am out.

[@musicalgrace7774]

I don't know who you are, but please know that you matter and are loved by God. Your every breath has purpose :)

[@lindaleelaw5277]

musicalgrace7 thanks for kind words. There is no glory in poverty , and I dont choose to continue to live in poverty.

[@yankee2666]

‘Dominos Tuesday’ is a great little novel I picked up on Amazon about a group of senior citizens on their last legs who throw caution to the wind and take a dangerous sea voyage on a small craft in the name of “going down swinging.” It’s one of those books that I know I’ll reread one day.

[@dalee.manolakasauthorofleg7840]

Méndez, deemed that prolonged solitary confinement is a form of torture, and the UN's Mandela Rules dictate that it should never be used with youth and those with mental or physical disability or illness, or for anyone for more than 15 days.

[@lindaleelaw5277]

Bring citizens - tes drag us tona meal and no one calls.

[@keanureeves5218]

Elissa Altman

[@lindaleelaw5277]

So you want to send over a strange person, a chat buddy ? Why? I need to get out.

[@elainegoad9777]

2023 not fixed yet

[@BuildinatornHD]

First