Help combat loneliness

A new survey by Independent Age, the older people's charity, found more than one in three people aged 75 and over in Britain say that feelings of loneliness are out of their control, equivalent to more than 1.8million people, and almost one in four worry about how often they feel lonely, an estimated 1.2million people.

To help older people recognise why they might feel lonely and to offer a few tips on how they can reduce loneliness, we’ve launched a free guide called If You’re Feeling Lonely: How to stay connected in older age.

The guide includes advice based on what older people have said works for them during calls or visits from the charity.

It aims to help change people’s mind-sets about loneliness, the guide provides information on topics such as how to recognise why you might feel lonely, how to help yourself and the opportunities to look out for.

People of all ages feel lonely sometimes, but becoming older shouldn’t inevitably mean that you will be lonely.

By taking small steps and changing one thing at a time, it is possible to reduce feelings of loneliness.

If you feel lonely yourself, or if you know someone who does, the If You’re Feeling Lonely guide is free to order and download from independentage.org/lonely-guide or can be ordered by calling 0800 319 6789.

For those who would like to help in some other way, Independent Age has also just launched its Christmas appeal to raise funds to help combat loneliness.

To donate to the Christmas appeal, call 020 7605 4485 or visit independentage.org/xmas.

Janet Morrison,

Chief Executive,

Independent Age