Connecting to combat loneliness

Citywide Connect is local charity Possability People’s programme which brings together the voluntary, public and private sectors. Working together, our aim is to prevent loneliness for people later in their lives. 

Did you know that there are some key areas that trigger loneliness:

• Retirement
• Bereavement
• Loss of mobility
• Divorce or separation

We can probably guess at some of the personal impacts of any of these life-changing occurrences might have, but the effects can also be felt in local health and social services and eventually, by the local economic community. 

According to The British Red Cross, in their ‘Trapped in a Bubble’ report with The Co-op:

• Over nine million people in the UK (almost one fifth of the population) report they are always or often lonely.
• Loneliness does not just affect older people. Many other groups in society, from young mums to those recently bereaved had experienced feelings of loneliness and isolation.
• Life transitions can be key triggers for loneliness, from retirement to divorce or separation.

Where someone may have little or no support from family or community, it can be a fine line between loneliness and chronic isolation, which often leads to poor health, resulting in visits to the doctor, illness and even hospital admission. 

Citywide Connect has been working with partners in the business community and believes strongly that they are uniquely placed to help prevent loneliness. And not just the home care or residential companies we work with. 

We want our business community to think creatively about how they can become part of a local movement to end loneliness. It might be by supporting your employees to think about retirement planning earlier, to encourage them to look at how they might pursue hobbies more vigorously afterwards. Our online activities database has a wealth of information and can be searched by activity or locality.

As an employer, have you thought about giving your employees approaching retirement age time to volunteer at a local charity so they can make new links for when they leave you?

Could you do something as simple as making a monthly phone call to them after they have retired, just to check in and let them know they aren’t forgotten?

If you run a customer facing business, are there things you can do for your regular customers who might be in one of the risk groups above?

Many of these are small things that could make a big difference.

Why not join one of our hub meetings to find out more about Citywide Connect. It’s also a great opportunity for networking and meeting potential new clients.

For more information, visit our Citywide Connect web pages

Or telephone us on 01273 208934, or email connect@possabilitypeople.org.uk

Thanks to Possability People for writing this blog. 

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk