“Senior Censuses”. There are more than 44 thousand elderly people living alone or isolated

The Republican National Guard (GNR) identified 44,114 elderly people living alone or isolated across the country, in October 2023, 411 fewer than in the “Senior Census” operation carried out in 2022.

In a statement, the GNR said that the largest number of elderly people identified as living alone or isolated was in the district of Guarda (5,477), followed by Vila Real (5,360), Viseu (3,528), Faro (3,513), Bragança (3,347) and Beja (3,230). In Lisbon, 1,118 elderly people were identified living alone and isolated and in Porto 826.

In 2022, the operation had identified 44,511 elderly people who lived alone or isolated.

The GNR explains that during the month of October 2023, throughout the national territory, it carried out another edition of Operation “Censos Sénior” within the scope of community policing, which aims to guarantee a set of patrolling and awareness-raising actions for the older population. , with the aim of raising awareness of self-protective security behaviors and reinforcing the feeling of security.

“During the operation, the military carried out a series of actions that prioritized personal contact with elderly people in vulnerable situations, in order to raise awareness and alert this target audience to the adoption of safety behaviors that reduce the risk of becoming victims of crimes, particularly in situations of violence, fraud and theft”, the document reads.

According to the GNR, in the 2023 edition of Operation “Censos Sénior”, 304 classroom actions and 2,651 door-to-door actions were carried out, covering a total of 24,978 elderly people.

Since 2011, the year in which the first edition of Operation “Censos Sénior” was carried out, the Guard has been updating the geographical signage, “thus providing closer support to our elderly population, which certainly contributes, on the one hand, to the creation of a climate of greater trust and empathy between the elderly and the GNR soldiers and, on the other, to increase their feeling of security”, highlights the security force.