According to data released by the police force, operating in larger cities and towns, 258 people over the age of 65 died alone at home in 2022, with 237 more in 2023 and 262 in 2024, totaling 757 individuals.
Of these deaths, 60% (455) were men and 40% (302) were women.
The incidents “occurred across the country” and were reported to the PSP “through neighbors, relatives, or friends.”
In a response to Lusa, the Public Security Police noted that last year, during the proximity operation “Solidarity Has No Age – The PSP with the elderly,” 918 people over 65 were identified, with 487 “immediately referred to social support institutions.”
Out of the total elderly individuals identified, 629 were women and 289 were men.
Overall, since the beginning of 2024, “5,903 individual contacts with the elderly” have been made, mostly at their homes and initiated by officers from the PSP’s Proximity and Victim Support Teams (EPAV), who are often “the only company or ‘friendly face'” these individuals have.
Geographical and/or social isolation, reduced autonomy, and the status of being “victims of repeated crimes,” including domestic violence, are the main reasons for these identifications.
The PSP emphasizes that due to “limitations in mobility and psychological vulnerabilities,” the elderly are more susceptible to fraud and aggression among other crimes, which, combined with the “feeling of abandonment (loneliness) and the social scourge of isolation typical of large cities,” and occasionally financial hardship, increases their “risk of (re)victimization.”
“All these factors, without an active and supportive family and/or neighborhood circle, contribute to situations of anonymity that preclude potential supportive interventions and can sometimes even lead to the death of the elderly person,” the PSP concludes.
