Maintaining healthy relationships is important for everyone. For those entering their later years, it can become even more vital – and more difficult. Children and other family members can be scattered across the country, relatives and friends pass away, and a person’s own physical liabilities can make it harder to stay in close contact with others. Even those who live with a spouse or other family member aren’t immune to loneliness. This CareNote offers older readers ways to strengthen current relationships and forge new ones in sections titled: “Realize the benefits of healthy relationships,” “Turn to friends and neighbors,” “Look to family,” “Do some networking, online and off,” “Focus on later-life relationships,”and “Not all your relationships need to be with humans.”

By Joel Schorn