Key programs for older adults who struggle with social isolation could be at risk

New Orleans — While they're not related, Dorothy Williams provides 90-year-old Lars Williams with something critically important: companionship.

For almost 20 years, Dorothy Williams has volunteered with the Senior Companion Program in New Orleans, Louisiana, warding off loneliness in the homes of elderly residents who live alone.

Without the company she provides Lars, Dorothy said his day-to-day life "would be kind of a slow pace."

Lars Williams told CBS News he isn't lonely, but the company sure is welcome.

"I like live people, you know? You need people around you," Lars Williams said.

According to a 2020 study from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, social isolation significantly increases the risk of dementia, heart disease, depression, strokes and premature death.

States with the highest risk of social isolation among adults ages 65 and older are Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and New York, according to the United Health Foundation's America's Health Rankings.

In New York City, teenagers Elizabeth Gerber and Mabinty Dakeit spend their afternoons building bridges across generations as part of DOROT, a nonprofit companionship program connecting teens with older adults.

"It's so easy to, just like, scroll on your phone for hours and kind of not realize you might be in a room with a bunch of people, and yet you're not discussing anything," Gerber told CBS News.

"I realized that I actually have a lot of similar hobbies with them," Dakeit added.

Andrew MacPherson, founder and executive chair of the Foundation for Social Connection, warns that President Trump's recently passed "big, beautiful bill" could slash federal funding for social programs, jeopardizing vital companionship, meal delivery and health‐monitoring services for isolated older adults.

"It is concerning for how we're going to continue to support our seniors who are isolated and lonely in this country," MacPherson told CBS News.

MacPherson said his group's "goal is to protect that funding, and to protect those models that do deliver supportive services."

Elizabeth Blackwell, director of the Senior Companionship Program in New Orleans, said she worries she could lose almost $300,000 in federal funding under the new domestic policy spending and tax bill and be forced to shut the program down.

"Institutionalization will be overcrowded, so deaths will increase, it's not where we want to be as human beings," Blackwell said.

• Nonprofit
• Senior Citizens