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http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/13/men-face-future-loneliness-problems?CMP=fb_gu
"Number of severely lonely men over 50 set to rise to 1m in 15 years"
by Robert Booth
The Guardian,
Sunday 12 October 2014
Men with low incomes and poor health will be worst affected, says report based on English longitudinal study of ageing.
The number of men over the age of 50 suffering from severe loneliness in England will increase to more than 1 million in the next 15 years, research based on government statistics has revealed.
More than 700,000 older men already report feeling a high degree of loneliness and with the population of older men living alone predicted to swell by 65% to 1.5 million by 2030, the impact of isolation will spread, according to advice and support charity, Independent Age.
Men with poor health, low incomes, few qualifications and living in rented housing are hit hardest by loneliness, which Independent Age defines as the feeling of not liking isolation. Mother Theresa said it is “the worst disease that any human being can ever experience”.
“This matters because loneliness is actually a health risk,” said Janet Morrison, chief executive of Independent Age. “If you allow people to suffer from loneliness it has the equivalent impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and is as big a risk as obesity.”
According to the report, which calls for government action to prevent the worsening of a largely hidden crisis, the problem is worse for men than women. More older men experience high levels of social isolation and almost a quarter of men over 50 have less than monthly contact with their children compared to just one in seven women. Nearly one in five older men admitted to having less than monthly contact with friends compared to one in eight for women.
Loneliness affects close to half of all men over 50, the report found, with the highest degree of loneliness reported by 8%. The findings are based on newly released data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a collaboration involving University College London, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, NatCen Social Research and Manchester University. It follows the admission last year by health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, that society has “utterly failed” to address the problem. He described “a forgotten million who live among us to our national shame”.
On Monday Independent Age will call on the government to tackle loneliness among retirees by providing pre-retirement advice on retaining and developing social networks and for local councils to step up efforts to identify lonely people. Morrison said the impact of loneliness is particularly hard on widowers because they have often relied on their wife for their significant relationship and also as a gateway to wider social circles, only going out with their wife and relying on them to manage the social and family diary.
This was supported by John, a 73-year old sufferer of loneliness who lost his wife in 2009. “The house was always full of kids,” he said. “Women keep the family together and people rally around them. When women die, people drift away from the man left behind. Loneliness is a killer. You can’t cure loneliness. It’s something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.”
“The most important thing is that we take responsibility for ourselves and prepare for old age,” said Morrison. “It means staying in touch and keeping up links with friends and family. We already think about our housing and finances and we need to think about what we are going to do post-retirement to maintain our social connections.”
She said widespread low expectations of the quality of life in old age meant that health service providers produce care plans for old people which fail to include an element ensuring social connections are maintained, when that would be a core part of any care plan for a younger disabled person. Society’s wider fear of loneliness is compounded by a “phobia” of old age with the effect of inhibiting attempts to tackle the problem, she added.
Fred, 85, from Stockton-on-Tees told the Guardian he feels trapped since his wife died seven years ago.
“I close my curtains at 6.30 and I am shut in the house for 12 hours in the dark,” he said. “I normally watch the TV, that’s my company. I have it on whether I need it or not.”
He said he would like to play board games in a pub, but finds it impossible.
“They have taken over the pubs with noise,” he said. “It’s all ‘boom, boom, boom’. For women there is more to do with things like knitting groups, but for gentlemen there is nowhere to go.”
Some attempts have been made to tackle the problem. Men in Sheds, a series of DIY clubs for over-50s based on an Australian project, was started in 2008 by Age UK in Cheshire and allowed men to come together and share tools to work on their own projects but in the same venue.
Walking football - five-a-side where running is banned - is being targeted at over-50s men to encourage socialising. “Telephone befriending” projects have been set up, such as one by the Seafarers Link in which ex-seafarers are encouraged to call each other on a weekly basis.