ISOLATION & LONELINESS:A BREIF OVERVIEW

OASIS For Men is an organisation that aims to help reduce isolation of the male population in Weston-Super-Mare by giving mutual friendship, support and advice.

The group’s mission is to find individuals who are experiencing loneliness and isolation in the community and to give proper intervention according to their needs.

Loneliness and isolation has a serious detrimental effect on one’s physical and mental health. Its effects on people differ on each case which makes it a complex subject to deal with. But what is loneliness and (social) isolation? Loneliness is a subjective, negative feeling experienced where there is a discrepancy between the amount and quality of social contacts one has, and the amount and quality one would like to have. While Social Isolation is an objective state – the absence of social contacts and social connectedness is subjective, thus making it difficult to assess.

The Local Government Association (LGA) are urging local councils to recognise loneliness as a “major public health concern”, which will put new strains on local services if it remains unaddressed.

Marcus Rand of Campaign To End Loneliness, proposes to view it as public health risk that needs the same attention as diabetes and cancer Ref 1.

Some of the reason that leads to loneliness and isolation are:

being in later old age (over 80 years)

on a low income

poor physical or mental health

living alone

living in isolated rural areas

living in deprived urban communities

Research shows that loneliness and social isolation are harmful to a person’s health. Lacking social connections is a comparable risk factor for early death as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and is worse for us than well-known risk factors such as obesity and physical inactivity. Ref 2.

Lonely people have a 64% increased chance of developing clinical dementia and loneliness can increase the risk of premature death by 30 per cent.

In addition, lonely individuals are more likely to visit their GP, have higher use of medication and tend to need long term care. They are also at a higher risk of high blood pressure, depression and falls.

But these are not the only consequences that loneliness and isolation gives. Loneliness can also cause people to drink more and that in itself can be a barrier in beating the addiction to alcohol. Ref 3

Furthermore, social isolation is linked to and is one of the factors associated with suicide in men. Ref 4.

In a government study, “Preventing suicide in England: one year on first annual report on the cross-government outcomes strategy to save lives”, older men (over 75) also have higher rates of suicide which may reflect the impact of depression, social isolation, bereavement or physical illness.

Therefore, early diagnosis, intervention and personalised response to loneliness and social isolation is needed to addressed and prevent the consequences that may arise in ignoring and failing to determine these on individuals.Tackling loneliness can reduce the demand for costly health, care and other interventions. By reconnecting individuals to their communities, it can give renewed access to older people’s economic and social capital.

The real challenge in this is finding the people who are suffering. The stigma that comes with loneliness and isolation stops the victims from seeking help or attention to their predicament. One of the solutions that CFRS (Cheshire Fire Rescue Services) through their Springboard project with Age UK uses is called eyes on the ground. This is utilising individuals and professionals within the community with whom lonely older people may come into contact with. Training them to spot the signs of loneliness and isolation and finally enabling them to make referrals to proper agencies for support. The key element of this service is having the people who are exposed to the most vulnerable people suffering loneliness and giving the hard to reach groups accessibility to support they need.

Oasis For Men is committed to finding the sufferers of isolation and providing help that they need to prevent the consequences that comes with loneliness and isolation, especially the loss of life within the community. OASIS plans on reaching out to the individuals and professionals who are likely to be expose to lonely people. Trainings and seminars will be given to enable them to spot the signs and to refer the individuals who are suffering. By identifying the suffers OASIS can then help them with the support that they need to prevent loneliness and isolation in their life’s. Support through reaching out, understanding the reasons of their loneliness and creating specific solutions to prevent the feeling of isolation and if needed, helping these victims/sufferers to have access to the help that they need from other institutions outside of OASIS.

OASIS is also going to have a project to inform the community and to eventually change their thinking about loneliness and isolation. This plan would help lessen the stigma that goes with it, which will help the suffers to voluntarily seek the help that they need and thus reduce the consequences of isolation, and achieve a better environment for these people.

REFERENCERS

1. & 2

campaigntoendloneliness.org/uncategorized/loneliness-can-destroy-your-health-whatever-you-age-it-should-be-a-public-health-priority/

3.

Simon Antrobus, ADDACTION

4. Government – Preventing suicide in England: one year on first annual report on the cross-government outcomes strategy to save lives Feb 2014. From CALM website – https://www.thecalmzone.net/about-calm/suicide-research-stats/

Neil Tuner

3 January 16

This is our research, you are welcome to cut and past parts, but please do not pass it on to anybody in its entirety without our permission.

SUMARIES OF OTHER REASURCH

In this section we give a synopsis of research that we have sourced, but not confirmed the orthentisity.

CALM

The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is an award-winning charity dedicated to preventing male suicide, the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45 in the UK. In 2015, 75% of all UK suicides were male.

Oasis for men is based out of Weston Super Mare, North Somerset