In Francisco Blanco’s house, Alexa’s voice is the one that interrupts the silence. “I’m not sure how I can help you with that,” this intelligent robot answers the question posed by its owner, who then repeats the same query to Siri. At 80 years old, he lives surrounded by these voice technologies in the house he bought with his wife years ago. Decorated by her, today it seems frozen in time, if it weren’t for the smell and shine of freshly cleaned. They were married for 42 years, but she died 13 years ago. However, it did not begin with widowhood: “I was a lonely child,” he says, categorically. “I was born blind, an only child, and my parents were not prepared.” Like him, half of people with disabilities in Spain say they feel alone, according to . In the population as a whole, two out of 10 share this feeling and those that the Government has thought about when designing the state strategy to prevent and combat the unwanted loneliness that .
And it can last over time. Blanco left a northern braña to study in Madrid, but he feels that he was never able to fit in completely. However, he kept going, studied high school and met his wife, who also had a visual disability since she was 20. Now he has a partner, Paqui, who does not live with him. In his home, he is kept company—in addition to Siri and Alexa—Geraldine, a thirty-something Colombian who is in charge of cleaning. “He’s been putting up with me for almost three years,” he says.
Geraldine is not so harsh: “Sometimes, when he tells me his things, I try to understand him. What he goes through is very hard. And he is a good person.” And he continues: “He tells me that he not only pays me for coming every day to do the cleaning, but also for feeling accompanied, because he is a lonely person.” Of people with disabilities, four out of ten.
Loneliness, experts explain, does not always have to do with being physically isolated. , the feeling of not being part, of not being seen, understood. Marcos Calvo, program manager accompanies youfrom the Red Cross, explains that it appears when one feels that “they are not part of the dynamics of others.”
Blanco translates that definition into something more intimate: “Loneliness sometimes comes when you believe that they cannot understand you.” And, in his case, this feeling worsened when he began to get older. “You notice more when you start not being able to react in the same way as before, or when you know what you want to say and the concept doesn’t come out. Or when you tend to repeat and ask the same thing many times.”
He feels that people no longer have patience. “Mobile phones have brought those who are far closer, but people ignore those who are nearby.” His fortune is to have two volunteers who come to his house once a week to do nothing but talk. At those moments, he regains his courage. Someone dedicates a part of their time to take an interest in him.
One in five people feels alone
The feeling of incomprehension that Blanco speaks of, the lack of belonging and support networks, is a feeling increasingly shared by different social groups. According to the 2024 Barometer, and two thirds of them have been dragging it for more than two years. Almost half of the population has experienced it at some point. “We all know someone who is alone or feels alone, and it is not an exclusive problem for older people,” says Violeta Jaraquemada, spokesperson for the NGO. “There are young people, people with intellectual disabilities, vulnerable people.”
Considering it a phenomenon that “has become one of the most relevant in Spain and internationally”, the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030 promotes a state strategy that is based on the premise that and is crossed by social and territorial conditions, and is influenced by factors such as age, gender, disability or economic situation. The strategy wants to promote transversal and coordinated policies between the state, regional and local administration.
The lack of coordination between public policies that seek to prevent and treat loneliness is precisely one of the greatest shortcomings pointed out by organizations that work in this area, although they admit that there is already greater sensitivity to the issue. “In many territories, it is volunteers and civil society who cover institutional gaps,” says Jaraquemada.
The person responsible for the elderly program at Accem, Ana Yela, also emphasizes the need for a state strategy to come accompanied by funding, including for research on the .
For some people, it may take a while to recognize themselves in this situation or perceive that they belong to a risk group. This was the case of Juliana, a 36-year-old Brazilian, who prefers to use a fictitious name to avoid further situations of misunderstanding in those around her. When he arrived in Spain to study a master’s degree 10 years ago, he thought that his feeling of isolation derived exclusively from the fact of being far from his family and not knowing anyone.
Migration and loneliness
Over time, she realized that she was added to other layers: occupying precarious job positions—she worked as a nanny—and perceiving a low social status. “There is a loneliness inherent to the ‘migrant plus precarious work’ combo in Spanish society,” he says. “I thought I would make friends after all, but that’s not what happened.”
He tried to integrate by learning cultural references, jokes, music and television shows. Today he has some friends at work, in an online gaming company, but he is aware of the difficulties inherent to his condition: “Being a migrant, you have to start from scratch. It is a consequence of displacement.”
To address these risk situations, the strategy that the Government intends to adopt seeks to establish early detection systems in the health, educational and social services systems. María Ángeles Cantón, who is a volunteer with the Red Cross program in a rural area of León, says that, from her experience, it seems easier to detect loneliness in people in a rural area, where almost everyone knows each other, instead of in big cities where people tend to isolate themselves.
It was the attentive gaze of her children and other people around her that gave new meaning to the life of Saturnina Ciruelo García, who lives in Sigüenza, a rural area of Guadalajara, in Castilla-La Mancha, after becoming a widow 13 years ago. He was 81 and felt he had lost his purpose. “When you are older, your enthusiasm goes away, even though you are well and living.”
She had sewn and worked as a dressmaker all her life, but without her husband and children, she found herself alone. Through Red Cross volunteers, who encouraged him to start writing, he discovered himself a poet. Today, at 94, and taking courses in associations, she says she is happy. Loneliness, however, visits her sometimes. “It’s worse in the winter, with the long nights. You start to think, remember the past, hear noises…” She is not the only one: among those over 75 years of age, two out of 10 say they feel alone.
The curve of loneliness is “u” shaped. Among young people between 18 and 24 years old, 34.6% report feeling lonely. The figure decreases at intermediate ages before increasing again after 75 years of age. Manuela Lucía, 78 years old and member of the Friends of the Elderly Association, recognizes that loneliness also affects young people, but believes that they have more tools to confront it. “Of course there are young people who feel alone. But I believe that young people have the possibility of accessing other things.”
In old age, he explains, physical, sensory and educational limitations reduce the world and opportunities for relationships. For her, older women are even more vulnerable because they were educated to be at home.
In the case of Francisco Blanco, his mind goes at a different speed than his body. Full of vital energy, he moves from one subject to another with agility and speaks with interest about what he has read. The appreciation—and gratitude—for an attentive interlocutor is evident. He once again reminds the volunteers that they take an hour out of their week to dedicate to him. They are an exception, he diagnoses: “Society does not pay attention to who is next to them.”
