A?NATIONAL?campaign to tackle high levels of loneliness among older people has been launched by a Petersfield-based company.
Bluebird Care, which has its head office in Charles Street, but has homecare centres around the UK, commissioned a poll of 1,000 over 65-year-olds, with worrying results.
The OnePoll survey found 11 per cent spent five days or more a month without seeing anyone. In the South East, 14 per cent of respondents said they spent more than a week alone in four.
The poll coincides with the start of Bluebird Care’s Every Visit Counts campaign which aims to alleviate loneliness in society.
Bluebird Care Petersfield’s business manager Robert Fielder said:?“Loneliness is non-discriminatory whether you live in a one-bedroom flat or a five-bedroom house.
“If you are alone this can trigger sadness and depression and one can feel they just exist instead of living.
“Our team at Bluebird Care Petersfield is fully behind our national campaign and are looking at proactive ways of addressing loneliness for any one of our customers who may feel, or are, alone.”
The campaign brings expert tips and highlights ways that everyone can help to spot and beat loneliness.
One of its aims is to highlight the high rate of loneliness among older people.
The poll also found that in the South East nearly a fifth of respondents spent almost a month a year without seeing anyone; four in ten felt lonely either often or sometimes; a third would not admit to someone they trusted they were lonely; and four in ten said they did not have access to support.
Older women were twice as likely to spend at least two months a year alone, as they lived longer than men on average.
For information on the campaign, visit the website www.everyvisit.co.uk