08 SPRING PROTECT NEWSLETTER The UK has a loneliness epidemic. Almost half of UK adults report feeling lonely occasionally, sometimes, often or always1. Around 7.1% or 4 million people feel lonely often and always. This figure is rising, up from 6% in 2020. While many experienced feelings of loneliness during lockdown, these figures show the problem is getting worse and goes beyond the impact of the pandemic. Loneliness is closely linked to poor health and wellbeing. Loneliness can put people at risk of mental health issues, increased stress levels and elevated blood pressure. Conversely, illness or injury can also lead to isolation and loneliness, as people become cut off from their usual life – work, friends, the community around them. Often their world shrinks to just those that they live with. It can become a vicious circle, becoming very difficult to break and a barrier to a speedy, successful recovery. What is loneliness? Researchers define loneliness as “unpleasant experience that occurs when a person’s network of social relationships is deficient.” Basically, it means a person has lost connection with others around them, their interactions with people lack any sense of closeness or meaning. This can happen to anyone, of any age, but the chances are it is more likely to happen to those that are ill or injured. Their conditions mean they recede from their usual life, spending large periods of time at home and it becomes easy to lose those vital connections with the outside world. Why does loneliness matter? For anyone who is working, a significant proportion of their waking hours is filled by their job. For some that is in busy workplaces, surrounded by people, for others it may be more remote, at home but very few people work in total isolation. Their day is punctuated by interactions in person, on the phone or via emails or instant messaging. While many of these may be virtual, they still demonstrate that you are in demand and have worth to others. Suffering an illness or injury which means a person is unable to work means that all these connections are immediately severed. Their world shrinks Rebecca Hill Senior Manager - Marketing & Communications Cirencester Friendly The loneliness of illness
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