How technology can help old people fight loneliness during Christmas

Business Standard: Loneliness, as a leading cause of depression and obesity, is believed to cost £6,000 per person in health and social care services. Loneliness is especially prevalent during the winter holidays, perhaps intensified by the short days, bad weather and the impression that everyone else is enjoying the festive season with family and friends.

While loneliness is experienced by all ages, it is especially pronounced in older people. In the UK, 51% of all people aged 75 and over live alone and approximately 6% of older adults leave their house once a week or less. An increasing proportion of these older adults live in rural areas.

In an age when services and information are increasingly available online, might technology play a role in addressing loneliness and social isolation?

Our research was conducted in South Lakeland – a rural community of Cumbria in Northern England. Residents aged 65 years and older account for 24.2% of the population here, against a national average of 17%. While there are two towns, the majority of the population live in villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings.

We ran 26 workshops and conducted 93 interviews over a period of two years with people living in the area who were aged 65 years or older and with staff and volunteers that work for the government and charities. Our study tried to find out what older adults do to maintain social interaction, how they plan for it and what role technology could play to help them.

We found that older people believe meeting face-to-face with people is especially meaningful compared to telephone and online interactions. Take the example of Jack, who is 80 years old and who lives in a rural village. BS