As you may already know, loneliness is as bad for our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and is worse for us than obesity.  It has now been clearly acknowledged as a serious risk to health and as a significant public health issue that affects nearly 3 million older people across England.

The Campaign to End Loneliness wants to see the health implications of loneliness recognised by those making decisions about local health priorities and health funding across the country. We believe the new local health and wellbeing boards should be making the prevention and alleviation of loneliness a significant priority for their area.

The progress that health and wellbeing boards are making to tackle the issue of loneliness has been monitored by the Campaign to End Loneliness. They recently analysed all published Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies – in which boards state how they will prioritise health and care – and found that over a third of 152 boards recognise loneliness and isolation is an issue for their local population.  

There are, however, still 67 local areas that are not prioritising this as an issue.

If you live in an area where loneliness has not been prioritised by the local health and wellbeing board, let them know your concerns by writing to the editor of your local newspaper about the issue.

On the other hand, if you live in an area where loneliness has been prioritised by the health and wellbeing board, tell them you are pleased by writing to the editor of your local newspaper.

Please take just a few minutes to write to your local newspaper - the link below takes you to a letter that will go directly to them, and you can add your own thoughts and experiences if you wish. 

Most deafblind people in the UK are older people who have developed sight and hearing loss in later life. The communication barriers faced by an older deafblind person can be immense without the right support, so Sense is a managing partner of the Campaign to End Loneliness.

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Please note that this action only applies to England.