10 January 2017
The problem of loneliness was highlighted over Christmas - as quite rightly we all want to make sure no one is alone as we celebrate the festive season. However loneliness is an issue that affects people all year round and has a huge impact on our overall wellbeing.
Some facts that the Local Government Association (LGA) published just before Christmas paint a terrifying picture. People suffering from loneliness and isolation are associated with a 30% higher risk of having a stroke or developing heart disease. The impact of loneliness is said to the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Amongst the over 65s there are more than 1 million people said to be lonely – about 13% of all older people. GPs say it is becoming more of an issue, with more than three quarters of them reporting that they see between one and five lonely people a day. There is no doubt that the impact of loneliness and isolation on health and social care means that it must be recognised as a major modern day public health issue.
Although the NHS has to deal with the symptoms of loneliness they are not geared up to prevent it. Many councils up and down the country are doing a sterling job in trying to tackle loneliness.
Before Christmas the LGA issued a press release reporting that Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Waltham Forest councils are piloting video-calling tablets to help adults over 55 feel socially included.
Other councils such as Gloucestershire have compiled loneliness ‘maps’ which calculate where lonely residents are likely to live - in order to target the right areas. Newcastle City Council's Chain Reaction service provides community support to combat social isolation in older people; and Cambridgeshire County Council's Reach Out campaign also provides year-round support, such as through ‘computer buddies’ schemes.
All of these initiatives are brilliant and will help the NHS as local government and our health service increasingly work together to promote our overall wellbeing. But, although brilliant and necessary – these initiatives are tackling the symptoms and not the causes of loneliness. In the same way that the Prime Minister is rightly determined to tackle homelessness with trailblazer funding for innovative local initiatives that tackle the causes of it – the same thinking must apply to loneliness.
Older people grow lonely because they are isolated from their friends, families and communities. Their overall wellbeing suffers as a result, and the state has no choice but to use limited resources to try and connect lonely people with others. If people were not separated from their family and friends they would never be lonely in the first place. The way to keep families and communities together is through robust local housing policies that include local connection policies for affordable homes.
Some young adults choose to move away from where they grew up for a number of reasons and should not be prevented from doing so. But, many move away through necessity because they can not afford to live where they grew up. Not necessarily in the same village or neighbourhood as their elderly parents – but not too far away either.
Starter homes, shared ownership schemes and social/affordable rented homes should give priority to local people first – yet successive governments for various reasons have torn up the local connections policy – and created loneliness and isolation as an unintended consequence.
House building, as well as focussing on starter homes and family homes, should focus on older peoples’ accommodation for people to move to while they are still ‘youngish’ and able to successfully make that adjustment. That will cause a chain reaction in the housing market automatically freeing up smaller family and starter homes.
Local councils can either directly provide support or point people in the direction of many charities that do provide support to older people wishing to ‘right-size’ but find the whole thought of the move (from clearing the attic/garage to booking the removals van) too daunting.
People can ‘right-size’ somewhere not too far from their friends and family in purpose built accommodation that can support them as necessary as they grow older – but most importantly as part of a new community close by to their old community.
Whether we are tackling the symptoms or causes of loneliness it is district councils and unitary authorities that have the tools that can start making a difference to the lives of our lonely older people.
Tackling the symptoms of loneliness will always be important but it should sit hand-in-hand with local housing policies (that understand their local areas) that aim to keep families and communities together – so that nobody becomes lonely at all.
