What is loneliness?

So the evidence scope starts off by talking particularly about what loneliness is, and also who experiences it. And as you can imagine, and will know from your own practice, what loneliness is about is a kind of individual experience - so there's that quote there. 

There's no universal definition or solution to loneliness. It's experienced differently by different people, and it requires an individual response across a range of sectors. 

So there is a personal meaning to loneliness. And the way to understand it really is to ask people about their own experiences and what was also done in this evidence scope and is really helpful is that social care practitioners were asked “how do you know loneliness when you see it?” and there were various different indicators that people talked about. 

So limited social contact was a very clear indicator, into community involvement. But also self-neglect could potentially be an indicator, misuse of substances, things like that which would indicate that people were isolated or not in relation with other people. 

And then the evidence scope also looks at who experiences loneliness, and of course it can be experienced by anyone, but there's some characteristics that the evidence points to which make it more likely. So for adults, widowed older homeowners, people who live alone and have long-term health conditions, 
that's an at risk group. People in middle aged with long term health conditions who are married. So it's very connected with whether you have a relationship, whether you have health difficulties and younger renters, people who have moved into a community that maybe haven't put down roots. And it’s also very often connected with mental health conditions, either as a cause of loneliness and social isolation or actually as a consequence. So there's a real kind of mixed, picture there. 

Poverty, of course, is a real exacerbating factor - it does limit people's social connection and social capital. And one of the things that's quite, encouraging, although also, difficult and complex, is that it's a very challenging condition - it's not necessarily fixed or static. So that means that it can respond to it. 

It's also really important to note the impact on young people. So in January this year, the government put out an annual report on their loneliness strategy and talked about, young people's struggle with loneliness, and saying that this is a real worry. But it's not something that we have that many, interventions or policies for. 

And there was a survey that was carried out, via BBC radio for all in the mind in collaboration with the Wellcome Collection. And that looked at how people felt about loneliness, how they experienced it and found that 40% of people aged 16 to 24 said that they felt lonely often or very often, compared to 27% of those aged over 75. 

So where you might think it's primarily going to be older people, actually younger people do definitely struggle as well. And you'll know that from practice. 

So the evidence goes on to give some really important key messages about those responses to building social connection for people. So the importance of social activities, making sure that those are available and accessible to people. Opportunities that arise from technology. We'll talk more about that as we go along. Recognition that it can really help, but it's also not suitable for everybody. 

The importance of partnership work - agencies working together. And that's both so that somebody approaches the appropriate person at the right time and the right place has the conversation, but also that the response is joined up and is personalised for that person. 

And that brings it into the two really central messages about responding to loneliness, social isolation or building social connection, which is comes from relationships. That's what you need to do. And, that these approaches have to be person-centred because of the different experiences that people have.

So what I want to do, having kind of talked a little bit about the context, is just pose this question. What do you know about the experience of, response to loneliness in your local population? 

And this section as an activity, as there will be for each section. And this is the suggested activity. 

So the Office for National Statistics carries out population wide surveys and also specific surveys around lots and lots of different issues. And one of the questions that is asked, this is used for adults over 60 years on the telephone or face-to-face is about loneliness. How often do you feel lonely? Often? Always? Some of the time? Occasionally? Hardly ever? Or never? 

And that standardised question is used to help people to understand what the experience of loneliness is, how prevalent it is, who's experiencing it. 

So the activity really for you to take away, if it would be helpful, is to think about, ok, how can we use this question or form of this question for younger people or children if we needed to in your work, in your setting, to understand the prevalence of loneliness? Because it's difficult to get a grip on what the response should be, and thus really understand what the extent of it is, who's experiencing it, and what the severity of that experience is. 

And if you want more information on how you might measure loneliness in your local area, the link there is to a resource that kind of gives you lots of different ideas about how best to do that.