In February 2020, the Welsh Government published its first ever strategy to tackle loneliness and social isolation – “Connected Communities”. We have probably all experienced these feelings at some point in our lives, but when they become long-term and entrenched, they can have a huge impact on our physical and mental wellbeing. And ‘although loneliness is distinct from social isolation… social isolation does increase the risk of loneliness’.
The strategy recognises that anyone can experience loneliness and social isolation at any age. However, it also highlights that there are certain groups in society who are more at risk, and certain times in our lives when we are more vulnerable.
We at Welsh Government were particularly concerned about the risks of loneliness and social isolation among older people as during the pandemic they were the members of society who had least access to, and confidence using, the digital devices and technology that quickly became the main way people kept in touch during lockdown. Whilst we saw many positive examples of volunteers coming forward to support the older people in their communities, the usual ways of staying connected to family and friends were taken away.
Our strategy also recognises the role that digital technology can play in helping us to feel connected to others and to our communities. We were therefore keen to explore whether the introduction and use of various digital technologies had made a difference to older people during lockdown and whether there are positive examples that we can use in future policy development.
A Healthier Wales is our long-term strategy for integrated health and care in Wales, and it was important to us to approach this piece of work in an integrated way. We therefore brought together colleagues from Health & Social Services to work with the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) and the University of Bath on this project.
The outputs of the research have been interesting to read. It was not surprising to see that older people prefer using the telephone over other devices, but we were not expecting there to be so much apprehension from family members about the security of devices and the potential harm from internet scams. Service users were concerned that using technology would mean scammers ‘can access their bank accounts and their hard-earned pensions.’ It is certainly something that we will need to think about carefully when considering projects and services that make use of digital technology.
Going forward we will be feeding the outputs of this research into our Community of Practice for Community Based Care. This group includes representatives from NHS Organisations, Local Government, and the Voluntary Sector so it is a great opportunity to share the findings of the WCPP report to a wider audience.
We will also be sharing the report with our loneliness and isolation strategy advisory group which includes representatives from the statutory and third sectors and grass-roots organisations. The group plays a vital role in helping us in Welsh Government to make sure we continue to tackle loneliness together and to focus on how we can make a difference. This research will therefore feed into future policy making on issues affecting older people in Wales.