Neighborhood Watch: who should help the lonely elderly
Single pensioners are regularly left without help, especially if they do not have relatives. So, in early October, a 90-year-old Muscovite woman spent a day in an apartment with her deceased husband — he died, and she fell, could not get up from the floor and called for help for many hours. She was rescued — the next day, a foster nurse came and heard her cries for help. However, not everyone has social assistants: many elderly people do not find out about the problems, because the country has a declarative system of assistance. Izvestia figured out how not to leave lonely pensioners without attention and organize a permanent care system.
How many single pensioners are there in Russia
The tragic incident with a pensioner and her husband occurred in early October on Chelyabinskaya Street in Moscow: a 90-year-old pensioner got out of bed and with the help of stilts wanted to go to the kitchen, but fell. She began to call for help from her 87-year-old husband, but as it turned out, he died. As a result, the woman lay on the floor for almost a day. She was saved by her foster sister, who came to an elderly couple to help them and check their condition: it was she who heard the cry for help. The emergency services staff opened the door, and the woman was hospitalized. The pensioners had no relatives.
There are a lot of lonely elderly people in the country who are ignored when they need help. So, at the beginning of 2025, according to Rosstat, there were almost 26 million people over the age of 65 in Russia. More than 4.5 million people over the age of 80. According to a VTsIOM study, the results of which were published in April 2026, the number of single people is only increasing. The 2021 census showed that more than 9 million single people over working age live in cities alone. There are probably even more of them now.
Many people also face severe age—related changes, such as a study by the NAFI Analytical Center and the Dementia social project.net has shown that almost a quarter (24%) of Russians have or had relatives with dementia. This creates additional risks. So, in August, a story from Yuzhnouralsk was described.: There, a married couple with developing dementia lost compensation for major repairs due to bureaucratic problems that they could not cope with on their own.
How to find pensioners in need
The Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation explained to Izvestia that in Russia social services — assistance at home and in boarding schools - are declarative in nature: to receive services, a person must contact the social protection authorities.
— A relative, a neighbor, a volunteer, a public organization, or a medical institution can also do this. For example, a district therapist or the attending physician of a hospital can provide social protection with information that his patient has lost all or part of his ability to self—serve through interdepartmental interaction channels, the Ministry of Labor said.
An application or message can be sent through the Gosuslugi portal, by calling the hotline, or by contacting the social service center or social protection service at your place of residence.
Elizaveta Oleskina, director of the charity foundation for the elderly and disabled "Old Age is a Joy", noted that in recent years the assistance system has indeed become "more proactive", although not so much as to find out that a grandmother in the village, who used to manage her entire household by herself, now cannot walk to the store.
— Someone has to report this, and in this sense, the system remains declarative - a person in need of help must be identified. But if 10 years ago only a personal appeal from this grandmother during working hours and in writing could be considered a "detection" and a "statement", now a neighbor's call to social protection is the basis for social workers to go to her house, — said the interlocutor of Izvestia.
Interdepartmental cooperation is also gradually improving, she says: a therapist from a polyclinic or an ambulance paramedic asks elderly people if they receive the services of a social worker, and can inform the social service about them. However, so far this work is being carried out "very gradually," Elizaveta Oleskina notes: in some departments they are not inclined to negotiate with each other, and in others there is no paramedic on the ground who could transmit information. It is easier to organize this interaction when people who could take care of themselves before being hospitalized are discharged from hospitals, but cannot after (this is, in particular, the project of the foundation with social services "Route of Care", which operates in 12 regions).
Elizaveta Oleskina adds that the social assistance system itself is very busy in many regions. Galina Laponova, CEO of the Timchenko Foundation, believes that each of the problems is likely to have its own service, but an elderly person often has to think for himself where to go and how to get all the necessary help. This problem is more noticeable in small areas.
"In a big city and in a small village, it can be difficult for a person for various reasons," she told Izvestia. — There are many social services, doctors, NGOs, and various assistance programs in the metropolis. But because of their number, it can be difficult for a person to figure out exactly where to turn to. There are fewer services and specialists in a small area, and sometimes you have to travel tens of kilometers to reach them. And it's hard to do without someone who knows the local life and can tell you where to look for help.
How to take care of people in villages
The Timchenko Foundation implements a program of "care coordinators" in small territories.
— This is a person who sees not a single problem, but the whole situation. He helps to figure out what happened, what kind of help is needed and who can provide it. This may be an NGO employee, a social service specialist, or a person from the local community. The main thing is not the position, but involvement in the life of the community, empathy, knowledge of people and local opportunities, and the ability to connect one with another," said Galina Laponova.
According to her, such a person will help a person in need to find the right specialist, contact social services, attract volunteers, arrange with a school or library, if necessary, so that help reaches the person.
In the village of Zabaluika in the Inzensky district of the Ulyanovsk region, Natalia Skornyakova is such a care coordinator. She used to be a prefect, but now she has received a new social status. She, like other residents of the village, really takes care of everyone around her.
— We all know each other, we help each other all the time: to give someone a ride to the pharmacy, to help someone else with something else. Recently, an elderly resident, Elizaveta Ivanovna, was taken to the hospital. After being exposed to radiation (she had cancer), her legs began to hurt. We go grocery shopping for her. And recently, a local doctor came to the village, they sent everyone to him, who had any questions," Natalia Skornyakova lists in a conversation with Izvestia. — They call me when someone needs something, and I'm already deciding who to ask for help.
She says that many people are surprised at how everything works in Zabaluika — not everywhere this kind of help and care for each other is organized. And it all started with a common cause: the whole world began to restore the local temple — and people reached out to Skornyakova with various questions.
— The village was dying, and then people saw that there really was some kind of movement, there was some benefit from it, that changes were taking place for the better. People believed in the best, took heart, and together they began to develop the village and take care of each other," she says.
Elizaveta Ivanovna, mentioned by Natalia Skornyakova, said that when she stopped leaving the house, she immediately felt the attention of others.
— They started bringing me buns from the local bakery. I burst into tears.: "Why would I?" - "As an elderly person, we have included you in our list." Girls and boys started coming home from school, bringing bread and rolls. And it's very nice when they bring an elderly person a small but nice present," she says.
Pensioners are also attracted to active life: Elizaveta Ivanovna, for example, was asked several times to write articles in a local newspaper, which is published by teenagers under the guidance of Natalia Skornyakova.
However, Natalia Skornyakova herself does not really want to call herself a "care coordinator": she had been involved in village life before. It's just that after she managed to win a grant under the Timchenko Foundation program, she received financial support.
Who should help the lonely elderly
The key to success in the development of neighborhood communities is the presence of a leader, Galina Laponova emphasized.
— As the practice of the "Power of Attention" competition shows, for the new stage of which we accept applications until October 15, in order for the residents of the territory to unite and begin to systematically help each other, a person is needed who can take on the role of organizer, inspirer and coordinator. It is such a leader who becomes the core around which interaction is built and a culture of mutual assistance is formed," she noted.
Elizaveta Oleskina says that "Old Age for Joy" is often called not by local activists, but simply by caring people.
— Recently, for example, we received an appeal from a woman who already works as a nurse. She accidentally discovered a family — an old mother and an elderly son in serious condition, who were literally dying in their apartment. A neighbor used to help them, but she moved away, and they didn't have a social worker. My mother is bedridden with bedsores and unbearable pain, my son has severe tremors and walks badly, he cannot even take care of himself, not only for his mother. There was money in the house, but there was no food, because I haven't had the strength to go out for a long time," she said.
According to her, after this appeal, the foundation's staff contacted the local social protection and healthcare system, and at the same time began urgently organizing emergency assistance: they provided the family with food, care products, and paid for the services of a nurse.
"But the horror is that it wasn't in the desert or in an abandoned village, but in an ordinary five—story building among people — two people who were sick and in need of help almost became victims of general indifference, never identified, not declared in the right way," says Elizaveta Oleskina.
Galina Laponova notes that the very idea of a care coordinator does not depend on the size of the city: it can be either a professional specialist or a person from the local community. However, the very idea of "caring that starts nearby" is important. It is important to see "the people and organizations that are already working nearby and help them work together."
— It is much more effective to notice the crisis before the disaster occurred, when the problem can still be fixed with less losses, — the expert noted. — And to do this, you need to know the person himself, understand how he lives, what is happening to him, what has changed recently — and then you can notice something that is not visible from one questionnaire or application.
According to her, it is important that gradually "the territory learns to take care of its own people": so that neighbors know each other, so that it is clear where to turn for help, who can provide it, so that government services, NGOs, volunteers and local residents do not exist on their own.
Elizaveta Oleskina notes that social services do not monitor on the principle of "is everything okay with a person" separately from the provision of services at home. If a person needs visits, then in most regions they will be visited twice a week. Between visits, an elderly person has the opportunity to call his social worker, but in a situation where he fell in one room and the phone was left in another, help may be delayed.
— Therefore, of course, it is useful to communicate with neighbors and acquaintances. And it is better to directly agree, for example, that you send emoticons to each other in the evening, and if there is no smiley face, you should find out why. If the word "neighborhood" does not mean a stairwell, but rustic houses behind fences, of course, you should also look for smoke from your neighbors' chimneys, and ask your neighbors to pay attention to their windows and pipes," she advises.
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