http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42708507
If properly funded and resourced this can only be a good thing.
Builds on the work done by Jo Cox.
I hope this will form part of a cohesive social care strategy.

Sometimes i open threads on here and think “WT actual F”

This is one of them 🙂

As was said on the BBC interview though, if council budget cuts mean they’ve had to cut back on lots of services that provide a community/social benefit (e.g. libraries) it seems just a bit of a political stunt for the Tories to then make a thing about funding programmes to help tackle loneliness.

Sheds are the answer. We need government funding for sheds!!! 🙂

@binners – in addition to, not instead of; shed sharing?

Sometimes i open threads on here and think “WT actual F”

Is that because you think loneliness is not a big issue or is it because you don’t care ?

Is that because you think loneliness is not a big issue or is it because you don’t care ?

Both.

@weeksy – either clueless or poor trolling; if the latter 0/10.

Governments of any colour can only do so much though. When I moved into my new house I got to know all my neighbours in the first few days, I’d look out for them and make an excuse to be outside to say hello. My next door neighbours are an old retired couple who most people would think are fine but I now know he has some sort of serious illness (not sure what) so I make sure I say hello, offer any help they might need etc. Not needed yet but they know I’m there if they need it. One neighbour has offered to lend me his ladders as we got on well, we now put each other’s bins out, take post in etc.

If I was in charge the first thing I would ban is any boundary fence over 4ft tall – I used to sell fences to people and everyone wanted 6/7ft high fences “for privacy” and seemed completely dumbfounded when I asked if they might want to speak to their neighbours.

People bemoan the lack of community and do absolutely nothing about it, expect “services” to deal with everything so they can stay in their own little bubble and not lift a finger. That old bloke living on his own a coupo of doors down, have you ever invited him for dinner, that old lady have you taken her shopping, bought her flowers etc? The new young couple that moved in, have you made them feel welcome by inviting them round to a BBQ? It used to be only old people who got lonely but as we are all cutting ourselves off from everyone around us in our houses/cars/workplaces this is an issue for younger people now too.

Given the scale of mental health issues along with levels of depression and suicide it’s really important that things like this don’t slide off the agenda.

My MIL says she’s ‘lonely’ being an 85 yo, house-bound widow. We live on the same street, my wife pops-in 3-4 times a day and does all the running-around, shopping etc. whilst she spends all day on the phone or ordering useless tat on QVC 🙄

On the other hand, we hear depressing stories of police having to break into houses to discover the remains of people after 6 months because they were largely ignored by neighbours and sometimes families.

I think this is a hugely important issue give the post-war demographic and massive social care implications in the next 15-20 years. Sadly, apart from lip-service I can’t see any political will to do anything about it because of the funding cuts to primary and social care.

weeksy, I suggest you show your lack of interest by not posting next time.

Being a boor on mental health issues is not a good thing.

Back on Topic:

a 13 per cent reduction in full-time equivalent mental health nurses between September 2009 and August 2017

It’s not all about money but money is a big issue.

https://t.co/OZ6qff89rZ

Weeksy, my 89 year old nan now lives with my mum and dad. She is no longer lonely. She is back to her once bubbly self and up anf at em again. You sir deserve to be a bit lonely at some point in your life to understand!

It’s not just the old, people are moving further from home to work, livin further from work as they can’t afford to live close, ending up in places with no friends or family around, a long way from colleagues and with not much cash to get out. It can lead to a lot of problems for people.

The Men in Sheds thing has been brilliant in tackling the issue, as the people most at risk from the mental health issues, of which isolation is just one symptom, are blokes over 40.

But I have to say that I think this move is a cynical piece of window dressing. As mentioned above, places like libraries have born the brunt of the cuts.

Our local library is brilliant! Its a proper hub for the community, especially the older, retired members, with lots of community events on, and hosting various community groups, as well. Its been threatened with closure repeatedly due to the huge cuts in local government funding, but has stayed open (albeit with reduced opening hours) due to a sustained community campaign

At Christmas though, Louise, who runs it said she’d had enough of constantly fighting to keep it open, and left after nearly 30 years for a private sector job. Its a massive loss, and I think its only a matter of time until they close it. They’re probably sorting the paperwork as I type this.

This will be a huge loss to the community, so you’ll excuse me if I’m not jumping up and down with joy at the government making some token, headline-grabbing (don’t forget to mention Jo Cox!) gesture, while cynically ploughing on with the policies that create the problem in the first place.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HudoQo]Rammy library[/url] by bin lid, on Flickr

Over Christmas a student from British Virgin Islands on GtiJunior’s Uni course committed suicide in his room. We assume it’s because he was depressed and lonely, stuck on his own in cold Manchester. Easy to say but if we had known he was alone and lonely I like to think we’d have invited him over.

We live on the same street, my wife pops-in 3-4 times a day and does all the running-around, shopping etc. whilst she spends all day on the phone or ordering useless tat on QVC

I think ‘lonely’ in this case possibly means missing some other types of interaction/relations? Not saying it’s the case just a possibility. QVC addiction sounds like a symptom. I know a lonely older woman who spends all of her time buying tat and watching TV. Her social skills are lacking tbh but the TV is like a ‘friend’ that doesn’t require any input except a remote.

This is why places like churches can be very important. I’m not especially religious but have to move around for work, and if Im in a new area for say four months I will go to the local church services.
Also pubs

If properly funded and resourced this can only be a good thing.

Let’s hope so, though sadly I think government performance on these sort of initiatives tends to be a luke warm.

@binners – a healthy dose of cynicism ^^^
I’m all in favour of local activism and ‘social hubs’ such as libraries – which are undervalued and should not be subject to austerity cuts/closures.
Having said that, I want to see how this develops and until there is a good reason to criticise it I will continue to view it as a positive development.

Well said newrobdob nail on the head.

If properly funded and resourced this can only be a good thing.

This is the Tories we’re talking about. They’ll probably outsource it to Serco and charge OAPs £50/hour for someone to talk to.

I want to see how this develops and until there is a good reason to criticise it I will continue to view it as a positive development.

Let me help you out here… it won’t develop. At all

If this government is a shining example of anything, its of saying one thing and doing another. So this initiative will follow the same pattern as the rest. Take your pick… social mobility, northern transport links, young peoples mental health, employee representatives on company boards. I could go on…..

It goes like this

1. Announce new high-profile appointment or vague, non-detailed, noncommittal policy direction with a huge fanfare – though not an ACTUAL policy commitments or targets. Just nice and wooly, feel-good social justice type of stuff

2. Wait 6 months

3. Either quietly drop vague noncommittal policy, or actually do the opposite

This one will be no different.

Asked whether part of the problem lay with local authority cuts leading to library and day centre closures, she said these were all challenges and would be looked at, and stressed there was no single solution.

Sounds suitably wooly and noncommittal to me. Meanwhile the closures will continue, and the problem will continue to get worse. Not to worry though, they’ve appointed someone to ‘take on the “generational challenge” to tackle an issue affecting about nine million UK people, young and old.’

What makes this outstandingly cynical is they’re plastering Jo Cox’s name all over it to try and lend it some credibility, get them some much-needed positive media coverage and stem any criticism.

Watch the episode of the Thick of It where the government departments are fighting over who gets to ‘use’ the woman who’s husband had died in an industrial accident, for their spokesperson. This lot have obviously taken The thick of Itt as a blueprint for government in so many ways

If I was in charge the first thing I would ban is any boundary fence over 4ft tall – I used to sell fences to people and everyone wanted 6/7ft high fences “for privacy” and seemed completely dumbfounded when I asked if they might want to speak to their neighbours.

I’d vote for that. In our last house our garden backed into 4 others. That only 2 we spoke to had low fences we could talk over. One of the others had a big trellis over the low fence then one day we came home and he’d slammed a cheap 6ft fence against out old chain link fence. It’s like being slapped in the face to be honest. We took our chain link fence down a year after we told him his fence was flapping about and we were taking ours out.

Happiness seems to be loneliness
And loneliness chilled my world

I think its a great idea

fairly sure its just window dressing & will amount to very little

but Id love to be proved wrong

Myself and my wife have been living will my mother in law for the past few months while our house purchase goes through.
I think a life of loneliness is starting to look very enticing for her atm.

Though not uniquely so I think we’re particularly bad for this in England.
Very reserved, hung up on class and status, passive aggressive by default.

I’m reminded of a time I was touring through France by bike, in the campsites you could spot the English a mile off, they’d be the ones who had built ‘walls’ around their pitch with wind breaks, or who got sniffy about shared ablutions. 😆

I’m also prone to this, especially so being from Norfolk, but I recognise it and actively do stuff to get over it by volunteering, but my partner has way more success with baking cakes for neighbours 😆

it’s faintly depressing that we need a minister for this, wit’s symptomatic of a society seemingly unable to lead themselves.

Minister for Loneliness? , Ha…Ha…Ha..Ha….. get the **** out here, an utterly cynical ploy to brand the tories as actually giving a toss, it means ****-all and reminds me of episode 1 of “In The Thick of it”

(Glenn)What we need is something that the public want that’s incredibly popular and is free.
– Return ofcapital punishment.
– That’s a joke, right? You are joking, yes? Obviously.
Come on, Olly, come up with something.
(Olly) National spare room database.
What about zoos? My kids went to a zoo the other day and they said it was **** disgusting.
You know, the state ofit.
That’s shit, isn’t it? Nobut there is an idea there, because in the middle ofthe city you’ve got wild animals.
Pet ASBOs? Remember that? ASBOs for pets.
That sounds potentially ludicrous, but then pet passports, that was a goer.
(Glenn) What ifeverybody had to carry a plastic bag by law? You know identification cards are coming in You’ve **** cracked.
Are you mad? What ifthe announcement is there’s no big announcement.
– (Hugh) For goodness – No, wait.
We say the Department ofSocial Affairs has been doing amazing work, bread-and-butter work, belt-and-braces work, the kind ofwork you aren’t interested in cos it’s not shiny, shiny, media-friendly.
– You sickos are so obsessed with the media – Sickos.
.
.
that every time we try andjust carry on with our day you don’t show up, so we have to call a big thing like this.
– On target, under budget – Coalface politics.
– Yes, I like that.
– Not wasting resources.
– Good, let’s do that.
– Let’s go for that.
We trick them.
Tinselly thing and they come along and we say ”Ah, that’s what we’ve been doing, we’ve been doing our **** jobs!” They never print that stuff, do they? You’ve come two hours out ofLondon to cover this You mugs! You mugs! But you’ve got a bigger story here than you have chasing tinsel.
Which is you live in a country which is properly Not many countries can say that.
And we’ve probably got ten million we can throw at it.

Morally corrupt bunch of bastards that are using the name of Joe Cox to garner touchy feely headlines, lets revisit this in 12 months and see if it has made any perceivable difference.