Elderly homeowners should have wind in their hair.

Elder Alone Homeowners Should Have a Wind in Their Hair

A bike tour through town, a coffee break, and a chat about old days. It all helps with loneliness.

101-year-old Jens Lindgaard Jensen, who lives at the Nursing Home in Middelfart, describes the bike tours as delightful himself. (Photo: © Isabell Knoth Berthelsen - DR News)

By Isabell Knoth Berthelsen ( [email protected] ) 11 minutes ago

For several years, volunteers in Middelfart have cycled with nursing home residents to combat loneliness, as part of the movement "Cycling Without Age." Now they are expanding the project to older adults who live independently.

Hans Møller is a so-called volunteer "pilot," which means he gets on the pedals, and the older adult sits in front. Every Monday, Hans Møller takes his usual route with the nursing home residents, where they cycle down the pedestrian street, look at the townhouses, and enjoy the view of the old and new Little Belt Bridge.

The bike, which the older adults sit in, is called a "Rickshaw," and it runs on electricity. (Photo: © Isabell Knoth Berthelsen - DR News)

- "When we get home, they say 'what a lovely quarter we've had,'" Hans Møller says.

That's one of the reasons why he still enjoys being part of the project after three years. Therefore, Hans Møller is not at all doubtful that the project should be expanded even further.

- There is a need. Their life partner may be dead, and so you sit alone in the apartment and are not able to form a new network, Hans Møller says.

According to the Foundation for Lonely Elderly, 100,000 older adults are lonely to an extent that affects their daily lives. Therefore, it is an area where there really needs to be investment, thinks director of the foundation Christine Swane.

- If loneliness bites deep over the years, then one becomes more sick, and there is an increased risk of dying too early, she says.

The team in Middelfart has 16 volunteers and three "Rickshaw" bikes. (Photo: © Isabell Knoth Berthelsen - DR News)

So a good experience with one or more others creates well-being, and therefore the bike tours are good for the older adults, thinks Christine Swane.

- The bike tour can be a bridge to, that one gets the desire to go into more relationships, she says.

The expansion of the project in Middelfart has just begun. The first housing areas, where the lonely homeowners will be picked up for a bike tour, have already been selected.

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