Sunday, 20 October 2013

Loneliness and older people: where are the frameworks that can stimulate informal connections to protect older people against loneliness?

Cream cracker under the setteeOn Friday the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt drew attention to the high numbers of people characterised by the Campaign to End Loneliness as ‘chronically lonely.’ This coincides with publication of a BBC survey, which claims that half of all adults in England experience loneliness. (The data from the survey are here (for England) and here (for GB)). The debate inevitably focused on older people, and I wonder sometimes about the loneliness of many people in late middle age.

Curious Point No.1. The Health Secretary rightly described the way we treat older people as a ‘national shame.’ He compared it to Asian cultures, where there is ‘reverence and respect for older people’ and ‘residential care is a last rather than a first option.’ Where this is the case, it makes sense to highlight it as desirable; although it wouldn’t be wise to take the comparison with Chinese culture (which is specifically referred to) too far, I think.

Take this study for instance, which finds little difference in the experience of ageing among older people in Shanghai and Canada. And then there's this UK study which found a high level of expectation for family support amongst Asian-Indian respondents, but Mr Hunt won't want to hear that this coexists with a high level of expectation for state support and an acknowledgement that the ideal of family support may not always materialise. He argued that we need to ‘restore and reinvigorate the social contract between generations.’ Indeed: so can we have a policy debate about how we do that?

Curious Point No.2. The Labour Party’s response to the speech includes this statement:

‘Families, friends and neighbours need a decent care system to back up their efforts to look after elderly people, but the reality is our care system is in crisis and has been pushed to the brink of collapse.’

I think there is plenty of truth in that; but it hardly excuses the last two Labour administrations for failing to take seriously the issue of an ageing population and for disregarding the accumulating social problems associated with the growing demand for care. Fifteen years ago it was urgent: now it is critical.

Curious Point No.3. While these news items were being churned I was in a breakfast seminar at the dear old Grauniad, on the topic of social capital and the voluntary sector. A bit passé, you might think. Surprisingly, most of the speakers fell plop into the puddle of implying that social capital = the result of what vol orgs do. Er, there must be some other sources of s.c. they could be helping with?

Debbie Ladds from the Local Trust rescued things a little by mentioning the value of setting up tea and cake sessions at local level – an example of something that works because the connections made and reinforced there are the ones that, as capital, can be invested and can bring returns. But this sort of potential remained unexplored and there was no other recognition of how informal interactions can be stimulated. Cue the same question for the Secretary of State for Health: where are the frameworks that can stimulate informal connections to protect older people against loneliness?

Ah, OK then, well cue Geoff Mulgan instead. At about the same time on Friday, over what used to be called the airwaves, he offered one suggestion on the Today programme (from 2:33:30, available for a few more days. Thanks Martin for the heads-up) suggesting that the energy within the Neighbourhood Watch network could be diverted to help look after older people who experience loneliness. I’m sure this already happens in some places informally; it might make sense to give it a formal basis, without jeopardising the informality of interaction of course.

Curious Point No.4. During the Today discussion Anthea Tinker (whose solid 1981 book on Elderly people in modern society sits right beside my desk at the moment), made the point that there are questionable assumptions about how family-oriented cultures (such as those in southern Europe) protect older people against loneliness. By way of extending the argument, consider this European research, which suggests that feelings of loneliness

‘were more prevalent in areas where living alone was rarest and where community bonds were strongest. Individual variables describing life situation did not explain the differences.’ (Emphasis added)

And finally, Curious Point No.5. The findings of the BBC survey suggest that people who practise a religion feel lonelier than those who do not; and are more likely than those with no faith to say they are experiencing greater levels of loneliness than they did ten years ago. This might be altogether unsurprising: long-held assumptions about the well-being benefits attributed to religiosity have been questioned in other respects (e.g.). I wonder if there is also something there about a proportional increase over the past decade in membership and influence of hierarchical religions (e.g. Catholicism, Islam) compared to non-hierarchical religions? Just a thought.

 

20 Oct 2013 21:18:33 | Older people, Social capital, Social exclusion

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Naming neighbours' names 91.5 per cent of neighbourliness surveys ask the wrong questions. And an astonishing 98.2 per cent fail to provide the evidence for the stuff that gets reproduced in newspapers. These random remarks have been conjured out of nowhere (consistent with the evidence-free policy environment that we currently inhabit) following the publication in today’s Indy and several other sources, of survey results from a home insurance company. I have not been able to find the questions or data behind the press release; nor the press release, come to that (although of course that can be fairly accurately reconstructed from the articles published). We are told: ‘About 70 per cent of people do not know their neighbours’ full names.’ The questionable assumption being that knowing your neighbours’ names is necessarily a good indicator of neighbourhood relations. And I suppose one reason you might ask about full names (how full?) in a survey would be in the anticipation of getting a figure you could broadcast to imply that neighourliness is in crisis. But surely not, who would do such a thing? Next - ‘Less than a third of those polled would classify their neighbours as friends. This falls to 18 per cent for those aged between 18 and 34.’ Are we supposed to absorb the assumption that neighbouring is equivalent to friendship? Being on what is called ‘first-name terms’ might be a necessary condition for someone to be categorised as a friend, although I think even that is questionable. Taking the above two quotes together, it’s reasonable to suggest that survey respondents are more fully aware than those behind the survey, or the company releasing it, or the journalist reproducing it, that neighbouring is not the same as friendship. Glancing back to this rough summary (which I know I need to update) I notice the following from previous surveys: Don't know name of next door neighbour Aviva (Norwich Union) 2006 - 55% (maybe a typo?) Full of Life survey 2008 - 5% It's hard to know what to make of these without seeing the wording. But here’s some good news. A while ago Swinton put their name to a rather more responsible-looking survey, and their communications agent, SKV, kindly sent me the basic data. I intend to try to do justice to this material when I’ve had a little more time to look at it, but for now let me share one minor detail. The survey asked ‘Do you know the names of your next door neighbour?’ (I suspect that should have read ‘neighbours’ plural). The results were as follows: So that’s 85.5 per cent of respondents claiming they know the name(s) of at least one of their next–door neighbours - not all neighbours, just those on either side. These figures do not necessarily contradict those published in today’s articles based on the idea of knowing a neighbour's full names. But I suggest they are both more useful and more dependable. Finally though, here’s what I think is the most interesting finding offered...
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Making the links: poverty, ethnicity and social networks JRF have published a piece of research on the links between poverty and ethnicity, which examines how social networks help or hinder people in moving out of poverty. I was involved in the study in a partnership led by the Third Sector Research Centre. Among the key findings: People’s social networks were shaped by factors including ethnicity, class and gender, but personal characteristics, such as confidence, were also important in developing useful connections. Family and friends were seen as the basis for most relationships but there were low levels of awareness about wider social networks and how they might be used for moving on from poverty. People’s links beyond their own ethnic community were important, but the added dimension of racism could prevent access to ‘mainstream’ influential networks. Social networks tended to be ‘like with like’, so while they were used to access employment, this was often into low-paid jobs which relied on informal recruitment processes. Strong bonds with family and friends helped mitigate the effects of poverty. However, developing bridging and linking ties with networks that could move people on from poverty involved risks and scarce energy and resources. Voluntary, community and faith based organisations were seen as important for facilitating access to cross-cultural networks. There were examples of good practice in agencies encouraging people to consider how their social networks could help them move out of poverty. However, there was no consistency in practice between agencies. There’s a four-page summary here. The full report is here, and if I may say so, well worth a read. The other members of the team were Alison Gilchrist, Angus McCabe, Asif Afridi and Paul Kyprianou. This is the place for me to record that, taking into account all the consortia and partnership work I’ve been involved in over the past thirty years – where relationships with co-conspirators have meant a great deal to me and almost invariably been rewarding - it’s been an outstanding privilege to work with such a genial and inspiring group of people. I hope our work has some impact and leads onto other things.

Kevin Harris

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