Loneliness awareness week
This week is loneliness awareness week, hosted by The Marmalade Trust the week aims to help everyone understand loneliness one conversation at a time.
Most of us will experience loneliness at some point in our lives and over 9 million people in the UK say they are always or often lonely.
All sorts of situations can cause a person to feel lonely even if they don’t live on their own. Like moving to somewhere new, becoming a parent or suffering a bereavement.
The restrictions placed on our lives by COVID-19 have made it difficult to see people socially. If you have been feeling lonely you may find that other people you know are feeling the same, try:
- Organising a weekly family video call
- Watching a film at the same time as your friend over a call or video call
- Sending a note or letter to someone who is having to isolate
- Having a virtual coffee break with a colleague
- Going for a socially distanced walk with a friend
- Using smaller local shops – more people may have time for a quick chat
- Joining a Facebook group for local parents
Although feeling lonely is by no means limited to older people at Wrekin we understand the importance of remaining social and active as people get older.
Across a variety of our housing and care settings, colleagues and residents have been coming up with resourceful ways to stay active and social despite current restrictions.
Sharon Wakeling, Service Manager at Withywood in Shrewsbury says, “We have had to adapt to interacting with everyone differently from colleagues to residents. We want to stay positive and are working together to find new ways of socialising with our residents.”
Activities now include aerobics, where the instructor stands with a microphone in the carpark or garden, corridor coffee afternoons and Bingo and even Olympic sized challenges to inspire residents to stay physically active.
On our Retirement Living schemes a regular activities sheet is helping everyone to remain connected. It features, puzzles and competitions and encourages residents to become electronic pen pals so that friendships can continue to flourish, all be it at a distance.
You can find out more about Loneliness week on the Marmalade Trust website.
16th June 2020