Plan aims to tackle blight of loneliness

ARGYLL and Bute councillors voted last week to support recommendations to reduce the impact of loneliness in older people.

NHS Highland’s annual report has revealed that eight per cent of its 1,500 respondents experience loneliness, by either missing a wider social network or intimate relationship, and was significantly higher among those with more than one long-term condition, a disability, and those who provide unpaid care.

Loneliness is associated with increased mortality on par with smoking 15 cigarettes, and increased incidence of long-term conditions such as dementia, heart disease, high blood pressure and depression.