Companionship & Social Support

Loneliness is a health problem

Sustained loneliness raises the risk of heart disease, stroke and dementia, and it is one of the more common reasons older people end up in hospital or in residential care earlier than they needed to. Asking for company is not a soft request. It is one of the more sensible things a person can do.

Who tends to ask

It usually follows a change — a partner dying, giving up the car, friends moving away or passing away, or a fall that knocked someone's confidence about going out. People are often managing perfectly well physically and simply have nobody to talk to between family visits.

What a visit is actually like

It is not supervision. The carer sits down and has a conversation, and then something happens: cards, a crossword, the garden, baking, going through photographs, watching the racing. The point is that the afternoon had something in it, not that somebody was present in the room.

Getting out again

Where people want it, a good part of the visit happens outside the house — the park, the shops, a cafe, the library, the bowls club, church or the mosque. Where confidence has gone after a fall, we rebuild it in stages: the end of the road first, then a bit further.

Matching

We match on interests as well as on availability. Someone who followed football all their life gets a carer who can hold that conversation. It is a small piece of planning, and it is the difference between a visit people look forward to and a visit they put up with.

Staying in touch with family

Carers can help with a phone or a tablet so people can see grandchildren living abroad, read through post and letters, and write replies. Families can read the visit notes, so relatives at a distance can tell that the week had something in it.