A group which is calling for bigger acknowledgement of association between isolation and infirmity stated that loneliness is a hidden killer for elderly people. It warned that lonely older people are at raised risk of depression, lack of workout and bad diet.
Almost one ten elderly people suffer from severe loneliness. The loneliness should be accepted a public health issue. The campaign stated that while people are aware of the emotional problems of loneliness, the campaign, few recognize the physical damage. It cautions of elderly people ensnared in their own houses due to lack of mobility and the loss of family and friends.
Due to lack of social contact elderly people can become more susceptible to depression and to other problems like excessive drinking, poor diet and a diminution in work out. The loneliness affects unfavorably on the immune and cardiovascular systems. The lack of social interaction is associated with onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
According to Laura Ferguson, director of the campaign, the problem of loneliness and isolation require to put on an equal traction with any other condition linked to ageing. The end of loneliness should be part of solution to the dare of restructuring care and support.
The Campaign to End Loneliness is being organized by Age UK Oxfordshire, Counsel and Care, Independent Age and WRVS and funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The campaign wants to highlight the importance of loneliness in the lives of the elderly. More than half of people over the age of seventy-five are living alone.
There is a need for familiar and proper efforts to deal with such loneliness, either through organized make friends with schemes or through neighbors helping one another. It was a problem that was frequently unnoticed and which could mark itself in other ways, such as health problems, explained a spokeswoman for the campaign.