Loneliness 'is not just a public health epidemic, it is a plague', warns Older People's Commissioner

Sarah Rochira, Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, has added her voice to the growing calls for something to be done to tackle the huge problem of loneliness in the UK.

Social isolation and loneliness has come under the spotlight recently with the Local Government Association publishing its guidance ‘Combating Loneliness’ to help councils tackle the problem.

Around one million people aged over 65 are thought to be lonely, with studies finding loneliness can cause more damage to a person’s health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day and increase the chances of getting dementia by 64 per cent.

The issue was covered at the beginning of the New Year by the BBC in its Age of Loneliness documentary, showing it can affect everyone from a student in her first year at university to a career woman in her 30s. A man who had lost his wife to cancer said: “It is not that I want someone to do something with. I want someone to do nothing with”.

Sarah Rochira, Older People’s Commissioner for Wales spoke at The 2nd Annual Learning Conference Network hosted by The Campaign to End Loneliness and Ageing Well in Wales, on how she travels around Wales as part of her job saying “I have met so many people and they have talked to me about loneliness and the devastation it causes to their lives with tears in their eyes”.

She revealed “there was one lady I met who was blind and she told me she sits in Swansea bus station everyday so she has someone to talk to”, saying “although older people are the most affected by loneliness, it affects people across the generations. It is not just a public health epidemic, it is a plague.

Physical health

“I am not talking about people who have been lonely for a day or a week. There are people who are lonely day after day, year after year. It has a huge impact on your physical health.

“We can’t afford not to address the plague that is stalking our land.” She added: “Imagine a life with no happiness, love or smiles. Think how bleak it would be. Loneliness is a modern day epidemic. It is devastating and it is of epidemic proportions.

“Up to three quarters of older people over the age of 75 feel lonely. Half of these say television is their main company and over 9,000 people in the UK spend Christmas alone.

“These figures are indicative of a situation that should not be tolerated any longer.”

Older people most affected by loneliness

Maybe part of the problem is seeing older people as ‘different’. “I don’t like the phrase older people,” she said “They are just people. I have met people in their eighties dancing more than me and people in their 40s old before their time.

“These older people are connected to us in so many different ways. We need to talk about our mothers and fathers and what we all need.

“We all have a vested interest in this. What we do now is not just about our future but the future of our children as well,” she said.

Ms Rochira believes there are a number of things we need to do and said: “It is time to unleash the social capital. Loneliness needs to be at the top of health agendas in Wales. We need to look at what triggers loneliness.

“Everyone has a role to play in identifying people who are lonely. We can all make a personal difference.”

She concluded with a famous quote on the three things in life we need to be happy - ‘Someone to love, something to do and something to look forward to.”

For more information on the work being done by the Campaign to End Loneliness go to http://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/