Elderly people don’t hear from their family or neighbours for a whole month, says a new survey.
Elderly people don’t hear from their family or neighbours for a whole month, says a new survey. The survey, conducted by Help the Aged found that Britain’s pensioners lead a very lonely life.
In the survey, it was found that 300,000 elderly people did not see their families for up to four weeks. More than a million are often or always lonely.Furthermore, 200,000 are effectively trapped in their own homes because of the absence of the regular assistance needed to leave the house.
Even if the 730,000 or more left the house it was only once a week. For old women situation is worse, as they are twice as likely to feel trapped in their homes than men. Almost half say they sometimes feel lonely.
In the group for suicide elderly people are at the highest risk, being twice as likely to kill themselves as young people.
"For many younger people, the thought of being old and lonely is their ultimate fear for the future, yet for thousands of older people in the UK today, it is their harsh reality,” Telegraph quoted Anna Pearson, the policy manager for social inclusion at Help the Aged, as saying.
"There is no substitute for human warmth and contact and our aim with this campaign is to ensure older people no longer feel abandoned by society,” she said. “We know that something as simple as getting out of the house to meet, eat and be with other people can have a lasting effect,” she added.
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More than a quarter of people aged between 65-74, and nearly half of those aged 75 or more, live alone compared with just 12 per cent of those aged between 25-46.
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