The study was conducted among 57,000 elderly people who live in the city and do not use any municipal services, the goal being to gauge their emotional state and offer them information on projects and activities available in the city.

The impact of Covid-19 on elderly people

The goal of the phone conversations carried out by the Fundació Avismón was to gauge the impact that Covid-19 has had in terms of loneliness, sadness, mourning and fears, and the resources used by people to improve their emotional state by themselves.

Asked whether they had felt sad in the last week or whether they felt keen to do things, 8,7% of those surveyed stated that they felt sad and found it difficult to do everyday tasks, 4.4% sated that they often cried, 2.6% admitted that they felt this way once or twice a week and 1.1% that they felt worn down or stressed from having to care for a relative or other person. Some 83.1% affirmed that they felt fine and, out of all those surveyed, 24.2% noted that their emotional state had worsened in the last nine months and 9.1% that they felt some sort of loneliness.

In terms of fears and worries, a third of those surveyed worry about their own health and that of their family and friends, while another third were concerned about Covid-19 and vaccination. Restrictions making it difficult to get out of the home and meet up with the family affected 11.5% of those interviewed.

Active listening as a way of improving emotional health

The conclusions from the ‘Com està?’ project show that conversation and active listening have a positive effect on emotional health among citizens, who welcomed the initiative with interest.

The calls were complemented with referrals and additional information on existing programmes and services in the city, such as the telecare service, the Fundació Avismón, the Fundació Salut i Persona, social services, the organisation Amics de la Gent Gran and the Radars project.