Download - Neighbourhood approaches to loneliness
Neighbourhood approaches to lonelinessThe tale of two cities
Tracey RobbinsCommunity programmeDelivery Manager(Eden)
• A mismatch of the relationships we have and those we want
• An internal trigger telling us to seek company as thirst tells us to drink and hunger tells us to eat
• Loneliness describes the pain of being alone as solitude describes the joy of being alone
• Isolation is often where there is no choice but to be alone • Some people seek solitude, but few choose to be lonely,
primarily because it isn’t good for us
What exactly is loneliness?
Loneliness in the UK
Almost half of adults in England say they experience feelings of loneliness
Loneliness = A serious risk to health
Loneliness harms our mental and physical health
Lonely people:•Are vulnerable to alcohol problems•Eat less well – they are less likely to eat fruit and vegetables•Are more likely to be smokers and more likely to be overweight •Are less likely to engage in physical activity and exercise
• Place based approach to loneliness• Asset based community development, action research• Working with people in their neighbourhood to explore
what contributes to feelings of overwhelming/problematic loneliness
• Exploring factors like location, health and wellbeing, safety, independence, life transitions
• Developing and putting into practice local ideas and activities to reduce the effects of loneliness
• Making every contact and conversation count
A neighbourhood approach - Action Research
The neighbourhoods – York
Carr EstateYoung familiesMixed tenure housingDebt problemsFew natural meeting placesLittle community focus
New EarswickAgeing population High levels of unpaid carersPlentiful meeting spacesRowntree model villageProgramme fatigue?
The neighbourhoods – Bradford
DenholmeRuralOlder population Poor public transportActive town councilLocal meeting places
Bradford MoorUrban areaEthnically diverseOvercrowded housingEconomically deprivedHigh drug and unemployment rates
• Recruited, trained and retained 32 community researchers in Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) in all four neighbourhoods
• Community researchers gathered information, undertook outreach and all fieldwork and analysis and spoke to over 100 stakeholders
• Talking to over 2000 people gathering almost 7667 individual comments
Local people leading the way
Action Research using PLA
What are the issues affecting people in the four neighbourhoods
Wider society:• Transport• Physical environment • Community• Housing • Technology • Crime• Population changes
Personal:• Poor health• Sensory loss• Loss of mobility• Less income• Bereavement• Being out of work• Other change, e.g. becoming a carer
A range of ‘risk factors’ increase our vulnerability to loneliness:
What causes loneliness?
• Members of the neighbourhoods came up with over 1000 ideas to reduce loneliness
• An average of 65 ideas were prioritised in each neighbourhood and shared with community partners and local stakeholders
• Community researchers in the neighbourhoods have done planning, negotiation and project management training
• Each neighbourhood has reduced (not easy!) these ideas to 5 priorities which they are now putting into practice
• Community researchers are now activists – sharing the key messages
From actions to ideas
What is now happening
BRADFORD MOOR
Community Market
Confidence group
Get2 Gether
CARR CONNECTORS
Pop-up CaféWorking with local church &
children's centre
volunteering opps.
NELLI
Parents play group
Community allotmentsCafé Nelle
NELLI Vision
Community activists contributing to further work: Local meetingsPresentationsMedia
ONE DENHOLME
Walking groupFilm club
App/ face bookWebsite & newsletter makeover
Key messages from the programme
• Loneliness kills people and communities • Regulation kills kindness and reduces action • Lonely people are vulnerable, this is a safeguarding issue• Building personal and community confidence builds
community resilience • Community researchers are now activists – sharing the
key messages
• The stepping stones to engagement and education need to be put back
• There is a real contradiction between society’s ideals and individual experience
• You can take the ideas out of the process. You cannot take the process away from the ideas
Key messages from the programme
• This resource pack brings together the lessons and experiences from the programme and includes:
• Loneliness resource pack - session plans, causes and ideas, case studies …
• Can do – guidance and tips for negotiating community action;
• Evaluation - Can neighbourhood approaches to loneliness contribute to peoples wellbeing
• Lets talk about loneliness - a short film featuring interviews with the communities involved in our research
Free resources
Anyone can be lonely, even busy people.Anyone can reduce loneliness – their own or others
• How do we make every contact count?• How do we look after the health and wellbeing of
our communities, colleagues and ourselves?• How do we give the gift of time when we lead
such busy lives? • How do we resource prevention in hard times?• How do we ensure that our community assets
are community hubs used to their full potential and open to all?
• Let’s see how we can all talk about loneliness
Wot… no time ?