Lonely deaths highlight social isolation and fragility, prompting new volunteer initiatives like teleservices to support vulnerable individuals.
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Lonely deaths are affecting individuals without relatives or friends, highlighting how social isolation and fragility can cause end-of-life events to go unnoticed in Italy and much of Europe. Examples include a 65-year-old man found deceased after four days in Sardinia and another man whose mummified body was discovered months later in Sicily. These tragedies occur across both large cities and small towns throughout the European Union. An anthropologist notes that modern society fosters loneliness and distrust, replacing past neighborhood support systems with an emphasis on privacy. To counter this, volunteer associations are implementing initiatives like remote monitoring (telesoccorso) to check on elderly people’s well-being, alongside human contact through regular phone calls, urging municipalities to support these efforts to maintain the independence of older individuals.
