Wisdom on living with loneliness

This audio practice note describes the generation of a collective document of insider knowledges about living with loneliness with older people living in Eldercare residential aged care homes. In Western societies, older people’s skills, knowledges and values can be treated as irrelevant and obsolete, perhaps especially so for those who are living in residential aged care. Considering the discourses around ageing, frailty and loneliness, this audio note reflects on the operations of modern power and opportunities to address a sense of personal failure in aged care using collective documents. Sharing different stories from those that are publicly told about older people receiving care or living with dementia, the collective document described in this audio note makes visible older people’s overlooked and diverse skills, know-how and responses in relation to their experiences of loneliness. The practice note also reflects on the process of stepping outside familiar aged care/biomedical processes to publish a collective document in a large not-for-profit organisation. The folks who contributed to this collective document hope you feel less alone after reading their stories and would love to hear any responses from you and/or your communities!