All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
It is interesting that someone actually submitted an FOE request in Jersey on the subject of loneliness
A: How much money has the government spent on trying to combat loneliness in Jersey?
B: Roughly how many people 70+ in Jersey live by themselves?
C: How many people have sought medical advice for loneliness each year for the period 2007 to 2017?
The only reply on which data was held was B: The latest data available is from the 2011 census, which recorded 3,318 people 70 and over living alone.
It is not known however if they feel alone. Loneliness as C reply said is not a "primary medical diagnosis". You can see where the question is coming from but some people can feel quite alone and cut off in loveless or abusive relationships from which they find it very hard to extricate themselves. Also single children can feel alone even though they would not feature in the statistics on B.
According to a 2017 survey, almost three-quarters of older people in the UK are lonely and more than half of those have never spoken to anyone about how they feel.
The cross party UK commission said: "How we care and act for those around us could mean the difference between an older person just coping, to them loving and enjoying later life.”. That is worth thinking about.
According to the same survey, common trigger events said to have contributed to feelings of loneliness were bereavement, retirement and children leaving home. Being shy, living alone or far from family and low income were other commonly cited contributory factors. I would add living with someone with alzeimers as well.
This is an excellent site for resources on loneliness:
https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/loneliness-research/
It highlights how loneliness can have implications for health, and far from being a secondary medical condition, can be a cause of depression and anxiety.
So perhaps the FOE request highlights something that should factor in the ageing demographic more than is the case.
Loneliness can cause depression, anxiety, and in extreme cases, suicide.
Most statistics on suicide rates measure, like WHO, in terms of suicides per 100,000 people per year. Because of this, Jersey will always be a variable outlier because around 100,000 is our total population. There is no spread over a wide area as in larger populations.
So what were the figures? The 2016 Medical report notes that suicide rates in 2015 were lower than in previous years and similar for both men and women.
Putting it in perspective - external causes - Accidents, Suicide etc in 2015 amounted to less than 4% of main causes of death. Far higher, and taking the bulk of causes, were heart problems and cancer.
The suicide rate in Jersey was 10 per 100,000 in 2012-14 for persons aged 10 and over. This is lower than in previous years, due to the influence of the particularly high suicide rate observed in 2009.
By way of comparison, Australia and Canada have 10.4 per 100,000. The USA has 12.6 per 100,000, and the UK is lower at 7.4 per 100,000 but not even between men and women like in Jersey. In the UK the rate is a low 5.1 for women pulling down the high 19.0 for men!
Returning to depression and loneliness, what is probably even more depressing is that if pensioners leave to go somewhere cheaper in terms of food and rent, they get taxed the full 20% on their pension. That really is like a prison sentence. They are bound here or face extortionate taxes on their pensions. Of course those living overseas on a Jersey pension are easy targets – they don’t have a vote. It is still, in my opinion, immoral to penalise them without allowing some cut-off threshold.
After all, a Jersey pension has already been taxed once. Tax is paid on total income, including moneys paid to social security.
Also worth noting regarding loneliness, one of the best ideas on paper was the phrase "caring in the community", but in practice, it meant cutting down on support networks and letting those who needed care fend for themselves.
The germ of the idea was good: to stop institutionalising people. But in practice it was a failure because the funds to do it properly were not there.
An example: care for an adult who cannot live on their own because their mental ability means that is not possible is left in the hands of carers, often parents, however old they may be, until they die and the State has to actually do something. They may feel isolated and alone as a result. Their quality of life is impaired.
Time and again I've seen plans for special needs adults appear on the horizon, only to disappear like smoke within the same year. Special need social workers in Jersey seem to have a high turnover probably because of stress, and the support network is poor. People are thrown on their own resources because the budgets are not there – they are for University grants, or for demolishing the Fort, but not for vulnerable adults who need full time care.
As the care inquiry said, Social Services are the poor relations in Health and Social Services, and Special Needs in Social Services appear among the poorest of the poor. It is catastrophic in human and financial terms. It results in another form of loneliness: that of the lone carer, who, after 5 pm and Social Services office hours are over, has no one to call upon to talk to or for help.
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
It is interesting that someone actually submitted an FOE request in Jersey on the subject of loneliness
A: How much money has the government spent on trying to combat loneliness in Jersey?
B: Roughly how many people 70+ in Jersey live by themselves?
C: How many people have sought medical advice for loneliness each year for the period 2007 to 2017?
The only reply on which data was held was B: The latest data available is from the 2011 census, which recorded 3,318 people 70 and over living alone.
It is not known however if they feel alone. Loneliness as C reply said is not a "primary medical diagnosis". You can see where the question is coming from but some people can feel quite alone and cut off in loveless or abusive relationships from which they find it very hard to extricate themselves. Also single children can feel alone even though they would not feature in the statistics on B.
According to a 2017 survey, almost three-quarters of older people in the UK are lonely and more than half of those have never spoken to anyone about how they feel.
The cross party UK commission said: "How we care and act for those around us could mean the difference between an older person just coping, to them loving and enjoying later life.”. That is worth thinking about.
According to the same survey, common trigger events said to have contributed to feelings of loneliness were bereavement, retirement and children leaving home. Being shy, living alone or far from family and low income were other commonly cited contributory factors. I would add living with someone with alzeimers as well.
This is an excellent site for resources on loneliness:
https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/loneliness-research/
It highlights how loneliness can have implications for health, and far from being a secondary medical condition, can be a cause of depression and anxiety.
So perhaps the FOE request highlights something that should factor in the ageing demographic more than is the case.
Loneliness can cause depression, anxiety, and in extreme cases, suicide.
Most statistics on suicide rates measure, like WHO, in terms of suicides per 100,000 people per year. Because of this, Jersey will always be a variable outlier because around 100,000 is our total population. There is no spread over a wide area as in larger populations.
So what were the figures? The 2016 Medical report notes that suicide rates in 2015 were lower than in previous years and similar for both men and women.
Putting it in perspective - external causes - Accidents, Suicide etc in 2015 amounted to less than 4% of main causes of death. Far higher, and taking the bulk of causes, were heart problems and cancer.
The suicide rate in Jersey was 10 per 100,000 in 2012-14 for persons aged 10 and over. This is lower than in previous years, due to the influence of the particularly high suicide rate observed in 2009.
By way of comparison, Australia and Canada have 10.4 per 100,000. The USA has 12.6 per 100,000, and the UK is lower at 7.4 per 100,000 but not even between men and women like in Jersey. In the UK the rate is a low 5.1 for women pulling down the high 19.0 for men!
Returning to depression and loneliness, what is probably even more depressing is that if pensioners leave to go somewhere cheaper in terms of food and rent, they get taxed the full 20% on their pension. That really is like a prison sentence. They are bound here or face extortionate taxes on their pensions. Of course those living overseas on a Jersey pension are easy targets – they don’t have a vote. It is still, in my opinion, immoral to penalise them without allowing some cut-off threshold.
After all, a Jersey pension has already been taxed once. Tax is paid on total income, including moneys paid to social security.
Also worth noting regarding loneliness, one of the best ideas on paper was the phrase "caring in the community", but in practice, it meant cutting down on support networks and letting those who needed care fend for themselves.
The germ of the idea was good: to stop institutionalising people. But in practice it was a failure because the funds to do it properly were not there.
An example: care for an adult who cannot live on their own because their mental ability means that is not possible is left in the hands of carers, often parents, however old they may be, until they die and the State has to actually do something. They may feel isolated and alone as a result. Their quality of life is impaired.
Time and again I've seen plans for special needs adults appear on the horizon, only to disappear like smoke within the same year. Special need social workers in Jersey seem to have a high turnover probably because of stress, and the support network is poor. People are thrown on their own resources because the budgets are not there – they are for University grants, or for demolishing the Fort, but not for vulnerable adults who need full time care.
As the care inquiry said, Social Services are the poor relations in Health and Social Services, and Special Needs in Social Services appear among the poorest of the poor. It is catastrophic in human and financial terms. It results in another form of loneliness: that of the lone carer, who, after 5 pm and Social Services office hours are over, has no one to call upon to talk to or for help.
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