Engage: Addressing Loneliness and Social Isolation in later life

Loneliness and social isolation amongst older people is on the increase. Around 10% of those over 65 years of age in the UK are lonely most or all of the time. Figures from the Office of National Statistics reveal that this increases sharply to around 50% for those over 80 years old, as they are more likely to have experienced a loss of friends and family, mobility or income. Evidence shows that these older people are more likely to suffer from elevated blood pressure, poor physical health, poor diet, increased mortality and mental ill-health – including depression, suicide and dementia. They are also more likely to remain in hospital for longer.

One striking message to emerge recently, is that providing support for older people to overcome social isolation is as important as support for controlling diabetes or stopping smoking. Research that has looked at survival rates over time has demonstrated that older people who engage in social group activity have a greater chance of survival than those who do not.

A number of very good initiatives, often run by the voluntary sector, have been developed to address loneliness and social isolation in older people. But more needs to be done to raise awareness of what currently exists. Often when people are asked what sorts of services and activities they would find most beneficial, they suggest services that already exist – they just didn’t know about them. Even the best and most innovative of services are of little help to lonely and socially isolated if they do not know they exist!

So mapping what activities are available and signposting this to older people is as important as developing new services and activities. Community Navigator, Wayfinder and Village Agent initiatives are good examples of cost-effective local initiatives that have been set up to do just this by making good use of local volunteers.

A study in the North West of England revealed however, that for many lonely and socially isolated older people, reliable door-to-door transport and just finding the confidence to step over the front door to a new venture can be major barriers to their participation. Participants in the study pointed out that they need someone to go to an activity with, not just for the first time, but on a regular basis.

Traditional befriending and mentoring schemes, then, still have an important role to play, but importantly, matching people to volunteers and ensuring they had something in common is seen as crucially important to making these schemes successful. Flexible support, ideally based within the community, and developed with the involvement of older people is also known to be effective.

By definition, this is a hard to reach group and many lonely and isolated older people remain hidden. Before we can even begin to tackle the issue we need to find ways of identifying those most at risk. London Kensington & Chelsea council has looked to address this by developing an online assessment tool that can be used by care professionals, family, carers or older people themselves to highlight key triggers for loneliness and potential solutions.

Importantly, when planning services to reduce social isolation or loneliness, strong partnership arrangements need to be in place between organisations to ensure developed services can be sustained. This requires developing holistic multi-disciplinary team-based approaches between the NHS, Adult Social Care and Third and Private Sector providers to implement person-centred plans that will cover an individual’s health, care and social needs, drawing on the full range of support within a locality from all sectors. The emphasis being on self-management, improving resilience and supporting the older person to engage in community activities.

About the Author

Christine Milligan is Director of the Centre for Ageing Research at Lancaster University.

Her main area of expertise is around health and geographical perspectives on ageing. More specifically her research focuses on voluntary and community interventions to support active and healthy ageing; informal (family) care-giving – including male care-giving and the gendered nature of care; the role of technology in supporting older people; and the changing nature of home and community.

A second key strand of to Christine’s work focuses around the therapeutic landscape. This concept embraces the notion that certain environments promote health and wellbeing and is based on understanding how environmental, societal and individual factors work together to preserve health and wellbeing.