What can councils do to combat loneliness?
I was evaluating a LEADER programme. We were talking about the importance of befriending schemes for elderly people in rural areas. Someone said LEADER will have worked when communities are sufficiently cohesive we don’t need these schemes. Makes you think that comment. In the meantime there is no doubt about the powerfully negative impact isolation has on health.
Loneliness is twice as bad for health as obesity, according to research published by the University of Chicago. This article tells us:
Its findings showed that extreme loneliness in older people increases the chance of early death by 14%. This contrasts with research showing that obesity increases mortality risk by 7%. Jack Neill-Hall, campaign manager for the Campaign to End Loneliness, said lonely people are more likely to smoke, drink to excess and have a poor diet, and are less likely to exercise. So, what role can councils play in making sure people don’t feel isolated?
Neill-Hall said local authorities were increasingly recognising the need to invest in services that help to keep people connected to their communities and develop friendships. However, more needed to be done, he added, and more than half of all health and wellbeing boards had not recognised loneliness in their published strategies.
Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, said it was a source of “national shame” that as many as 800,000 people in England are “chronically lonely”.