The Wait for a Loneliness Strategy

Loneliness is one of the many areas of health which has now become socially acceptable to talk about and also acceptable to create policy upon. Stormont has responded to this in a couple of way listed below:

However, we still lack a complete strategy for actually dealing with Loneliness despite multiple organizations calling out for it’s creation. This article will look at how our neighbours in the south and the west have been dealing with the problem, what has been recommended for this region and then, finally, look at some areas which still need to be addressed in the existing material.

The ROI Loneliness Strategy Summary

The Republic has been criticised for their current approach to loneliness but, at the very least, there is a short strategy posted by the Loneliness Taskforce in 2018 laying out a possible all-Island response to the issue. This report culminates in 5 relatively concise recommendations on how to help tackle loneliness in the republic: 

This strategy has not been taken any further by the Irish government.

The UK Loneliness Strategy Summary

The UK has had a more proactive approach in dealing with the issue of loneliness so far, already having implemented a strategy in 2018 and published two update reports. The most recent update from January 2021 showed that the UK government had made substantial progress in implementing the 2018 strategy with nearly all points in the strategy seeing some form of movement (outside of some which have been delayed due to COVID-19). To give a brief overview of the 2018 strategy it focused on:

This strategy was seen as a start to tackling an issue which we do not yet fully understand and research would need to be a key part in the medium to long term to see a properly constructed plan to deal with societal loneliness. The strategy is broken down into an extensive set of policy which are too extensive to list out here however you could summarise some of the themes of the strategy as:

-update the health service’s approach to loneliness

-laying out a department by department approach to ensuring that loneliness becomes a concern for all parts of government

-Invest in public campaigns which educates the public and make sure to educate policy makers as well on subjects like trigger points (stages in individuals lives where loneliness can become particularly bad and begin a cycle of continued loneliness)

-Ensure that all stakeholders and potentially impactful members are enlisted to play into the strategy to tackle loneliness

-Find ways to create a greater feeling of community where loneliness is present

-Research into Loneliness to a point where the issue becomes a known quantity that can be dealt with through empirical data

-Creating a localised and, at times, an individualised system of dealing with loneliness that accepts need for flexibility in response to the issue

One area which could produce concern was the apparent lack of real funding promised within or outside of the strategy in the past two years. While brilliant progress has been made, some of the issues that still need to be tackled may well only be fully addressed if proper funding is provided. However, the strategy has seen general success up to this point.

Scotland also published their own strategy in 2018 will carry them over until 2026 while Wales has published their strategy in 2021. Leaving NI as the only devolved region without a strategy on Loneliness.

Recommended Loneliness Strategy for NI

In terms of a concrete loneliness strategy for NI, the closest thing we currently have is a report, from the Campaign to End Loneliness and the All Party Group to End Loneliness in NI, which sets out some of the issues which NI will have to address in an NI specific strategy. While there are only three main recommendations: 

There is also an interesting set of mechanisms they want to see included in any future strategy:

-A cross-departmental loneliness indicator in the next PfG

-Establish loneliness champions across departments & non-departmental public bodies. -Consider a regional interim Loneliness Champion.

-A cross-sector Loneliness Implementation Group should be established.

-Delivered by co-ordinated action across government, statutory bodies, voluntary and community sector and business.

-Produce an annual report & develop a loneliness impact assessment process.

-Invest in research to address evidence gaps.

However there are some additional areas which, upon further reading, I would suggest need to be considered in a more holistic policy approach if the issue of loneliness will truly be addressed in Northern Ireland.

Loneliness of the old vs Loneliness of the young

Both the young and the old experience loneliness at higher levels than we have seen in the past. It should be noted that both groups experience loneliness differently, meaning that a response to each kind of loneliness will be necessary to see the appropriate support provided. 

There are a few examples of how to tackle loneliness in the elderly. One of the best examples can be found in Japan where the question of loneliness has been taken very seriously. The ‘Zero tolerance to Isolation’ project from Adachi ward uses personal information on senior citizens who may be suffering from social isolation. Following a survey that was sent out to all at-risk seniors, volunteers were able to come out to their houses and make regular home visits to ensure that those senior citizens who usually lack real contact with the outside world remain connected. This served as a two way street, as this alleviated the loneliness from the senior citizens but also the volunteers who sometimes suffered from loneliness as well. The ‘Zero tolerance to Isolation’ project is also supplemented by a ‘Minamori’ project which effectively acts as a neighbourhood watch for old people who live alone and need to be looked after by the community.

Finding instances of highly effective youth outreach programmes for loneliness has been difficult. While the above report from the Campaign to End Loneliness in NI was thorough and well-researched, they stated that it mainly focused on loneliness in those who are older. It was not geared towards tackling the issue of loneliness in young people and it may appear that many of the causes of youth loneliness stem from relatively new phenomena, so it is understandable why approaching the issue is difficult for policy makers. Clearly a key place to start is concentrated research into youth loneliness and where the roots of the issue lie. If we can establish the causes and the methods of youth loneliness, then we should be able to create a competent action plan for dealing with it. In the absence of that research, a campaign to remove the stigma of loneliness and educate young people on loneliness may be the best interim option.

Deprived areas response

It has generally been found that those in more economically deprived areas have been more likely to experience severe loneliness (however, it appears most of this research was amongst older people). While the English Loneliness strategy has been successful and the Irish strategy paper appeared progressive, both looked over the fact there needs to be a grounded and realistic approach to which areas need this help the most. This means that the method does not need to be any different for these areas, simply that these areas need to be focused on and any strategy needs to ensure that the appropriate resources are being pushed in the right direction and not simply ending up where they are not needed as desperately.

NI (probably even region) Specific Research

While looking into youth loneliness, it may be just as important to create a regional set of research into NI loneliness. While we have NISRA doing a loneliness survey, there is more that needs to be done in terms of the identification and treatment of loneliness that is not only lacking in NI but in the wider academic community. As has been stated before, this is a new issue which has to be addressed but we can address it better if we create an established set of knowledge. If this were fulfilled, then NI could become a leader in dealing with the phenomenon of loneliness. 

A pre-established multi-level approach

What the above means is a strategy which makes room for decision making on the approach to loneliness not only to come from Stormont but from all levels of society. We have to see regional responses being given the room to adequately deal with their unique situations, (meaning that councils will need to be consulted). Additionally, what can be found in every advice piece on mental health is the need to understand that every person has a different mental health journey. The english strategy goes more in depth into how loneliness especially can be brought on by stressful life events and new, unfamiliar environments. This means that any strategy has to have an understanding that not every individual will have the same journey to addressing their loneliness.

Conclusion

It can feel slightly hollow to say that research is the next important step in dealing with policy but for an issue as complex as loneliness, a full set of information must be present to accurately be able to respond to the problem. However, the UK strategy has shown that there is still a lot that can be done in the meantime and politicians should be held to account if those options are not at least looked into.