The holiday season is upon us, and I am sure many are looking forward to spending time with those near and dear to them, sharing old memories and making new ones. However, this season is also when those among us who live by themselves feel the most alone and isolated (Scott, 2019). According to Age UK (2018), there are subtle but important differences between loneliness and isolation: while loneliness refers to the gap in the amount of social engagement a person desires and receives, social isolation refers to the number of social contacts a person has. Since loneliness is subjective, it is more difficult to address.
In the past few decades, family and social structures have witnessed remarkable changes, both in the Western world as well as globally (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2011). With these changes come the social isolation and loneliness experienced by many older adults. Several studies have shown the health effects of loneliness (Gale et al, 2018; National Institute on Aging, 2019), which include depression, cognitive decline, coronary heart disease and stroke and clinical dementia (Campaign to End Loneliness, 2019). Older adults who live alone also have a tendency to neglect themselves (Cook, 2017); a recent article in the Telegraph (Swerling, 2019) reported that, in the UK, up to 1 million older adults avoid eating entirely as they lack the motivation to prepare and eat meals when they are alone.
There are many initiatives that seek solutions to the problem of social isolation (Age UK, 2017), and I had the great pleasure of experiencing one such initiative myself. In mid-October, my family hosted a tea party for eight older adults and three volunteers through a national charity, Re-engage (formerly Contact the Elderly): www.reengage.org.uk. This organisation connects host families to local seniors, and on one Sunday every month, a host family opens its doors and lays out a spread for their older neighbours and some helpers, where stories are shared over cups of tea, pastries and puffs. I found that the afternoon just flew by, and I felt enriched by the life experiences of our guests, who described how the community had changed, their plans for big birthdays (the oldest guest had recently turned 92!) and the compassion and kindness with which their social carers helped them. I got lots of grandparently advice on child rearing and even an informal invitation to a 90th birthday party. As a volunteer, the commitment is to hold just one such party a year.
A comprehensive article in this month's issue of the BJCN sets out a conceptual framework to understand and resolve the loneliness ‘epidemic’ (pages 580–584). The authors describe an initiative undertaken in Scotland (Compassionate Communities) to help tackle social isolation and loneliness, building on the concept of collective memory. Their aim is to provide a theoretical foundation for community-based services involved in addressing this social epidemic.
Bystander effect should not creep into combatting loneliness—it is something that each individual can do a little about to change a whole lot.