AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
Only the lonely
Know the way I feel tonight
Only the lonely
Know this feeling ain’t right.
Roy Orbison’s lyrics touch on the loneliness conundrum. You can feel perfectly fine alone – and a third of over 65s in Ireland live alone – without feeling lonely. But if that solo state involves isolation – the lack of human contact – it certainly doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t do you much good either.
Surprisingly, given our reputation for sociability and craic, last year loneliness was the main reason people contacted Alone organisation which provides support for older people. A third of these said there was no one to visit them and 9% hadn’t been out socially in the last year. Contact from older people for mental health and emotional reasons was up by 122% over 2022.
People may be more aware now of the need to reach out for help to organisations like Senior Line, a confidential phone line for elders which operates from10 am to 10 pm. “Loneliness featured in many of our calls,” according to Anne Dempsey, Communications Manager Senior Line. “Older people may be lonely for a variety of reasons. They may live in an isolated area, be bereaved and where a lot of their friends have died. They may have difficult family situations or they may be housebound due to illness.”
One in five of the population are over 65 and that will soon become one in four. Loneliness, sometimes described as social pain, increases with age and living alone doubles the chance of experiencing loneliness. Also, lonely people are more likely to suffer from depression, according to Professor Rose Anne Kenny in her book ‘Age Proof’.
The kind of social contact that makes a difference is where there is meaningful engagement and involvement with others. It can be hard to understand the impact isolation can have on well-being and mental health when you are not in that situation.
Umpteen studies confirm the importance of social contact and an analysis of 148 studies found that having social relationships decreases the risk of mortality. According to Harvard researchers, stronger social and familial ties predict lower concentrations of fibrogen, which carries the same risk factor as smoking for blood clots and heart attacks. Social interactions play an important role in suppressing unwanted inflammation which is part of the ageing process, according to the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).
Older people can fall through the cracks for all kinds of reasons from illness to refusal to admit that they need help. Finding that a friend had become increasing isolated due to a health problem while at the same time her friends were becoming too frail to help, I began looking for support for her. On the official side arranging for a visit by the community health nurse via her GP was a starting point to assess the situation and perhaps involve the Home Support Service.
Alone are a great lifeline and as a third party you can make a referral about someone in need. The organisation has more than 5,000 volunteers who conduct and provide practical supports to older people including visits, lifts and phone calls, linking older people into social activity and being a companion to them. Support provides access to health, social care, housing, transport and technology and other services and activities to improve physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.
Senior Line’s confidential listening service for older people is another helpful resource.” The first thing we do is to engage with people to find out more so that we can have an understanding of their situation,” says Anne Dempsey. “A lot of people call for support on an ongoing way and many are still suffering from the effects of Covid, in that they have lost their confidence.”
There are lots of supportive organisations out there, like Age Friendly Ireland and Active Ireland and great new initiatives like Healthy Age Friendly Homes funded by Slaintecare and Age Friendly Ireland, designed to support older people living in their own homes and to increase health and community support.
Several years ago, the UK appointed their first Minister for Loneliness with the aim of tackling the epidemic of loneliness affecting more than nine million Brits. Sounds like an idea we could copy here.
ALONE 0818222024 Senior Line 1800804591
