AARP Foundation keynote: social isolation raises health, financial and fraud risks for older adults, speaker says

Emily, senior vice president of programs at AARP Foundation, told attendees at a Utah conference (joining by Zoom from Washington, D.C.) that social isolation and loneliness among older adults carry measurable health and financial harms and increase vulnerability to fraud. She urged cross‑sector solutions and pointed listeners to AARP resources including connecttoeffect.org and the Fraud Watch Network helpline.

The keynote framed isolation and loneliness as related but different problems: "Social isolation is objective with very measurable factors," Emily said, citing network size, contact frequency and transportation access. "Loneliness is really more personal" and harder to quantify. She said identifying whether isolation or loneliness is driving a problem is essential because "the intervention or the solution that you develop or suggest may be very different depending on…