‘LONELINESS IS A REALLY BIG ISSUE’

LONELINESS can be as bad for your health as smoking, according to research that has sparked urgent action in Wales. The findings prompted the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board to pilot a befriending service called Prescription For Loneliness, aiming to tackle the problems of social isolation.

A spokesman for the health board said: “Research demonstrates that loneliness has an effect on mortality that is similar to cigarette smoking.”

He said loneliness is associated with poor mental health and conditions such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension and dementia, as well as depression and suicide.

The Prescription For Loneliness service focuses on veterans and older people, but also aims to support as many lonely people in the area as possible.

Dave Minton, a GP at Nantgarw Road Medical Centre in Caerphilly, said many patients do not like to admit that they are lonely.

He said: “I see many people coming into the surgery on a daily basis who are suffering quite clearly with issues of loneliness, but are not keen to admit it.

“We also get fairly frequent house calls from patients who are clearly just suffering from being lonely.”

Dr Minton said a specialised service could help to reduce the burden on the health service, as well as reducing the number of drugs prescribed inappropriately.

He added: “Due to the limited time we have with our patients in appointments, we haven’t got enough time to counsel them thoroughly and properly enough. That means we often end up overmedicating patients who are suffering with loneliness and treating it with drugs where that is not appropriate.

“If we could spend more time counselling them or if we had services we could signpost patients to then that would be far better.”

Hugh Irwin, head of the Thrive team at the United Welsh housing association, described loneliness as a public health issue.

He said: “I think we have got to stop dishing out so many pills.

“People come into whatever service because of a physical or mental illness, but those are symptoms of something else that’s going on. What people are often really struggling with is purpose in their lives and meaningful relationships. We believe that people need people to have a good life – people need to feel needed.”

To find out more about The Prescription For Loneliness Service, email karen. munro@ wales. nhs.uk or visit www. wales.nhs.uk