Check in with your elderly neighbours this Christmas time

MAKE sure to check in with your elderly relatives, neighbours or friends who live alone in Sligo this Christmas.

That’s the message from charity ALONE which supports older people who wish to age at home. Their Christmas campaign asks members of the public to ‘Do One Thing’, such as picking up the phone, visiting relatives or neighbours or becoming an ALONE be-friending volunteer.

Sean Moynihan, CEO of ALONE explained their Christmas campaign to The Sligo Champion.

“This Christmas, our campaign is ‘Do One Thing’. For older people, the year can be tough and they might be lonely. We are encouraging people to reach out to someone they might know who might be lonely or struggling.

“Maybe there is an aunt, uncle, neighbour or someone who you have been saying for a while you must go and visit. Put the effort in,” he added.

With people now living longer, more people are living alone.

Nearly one third of over 65s in private housing live alone.

One in ten older people now suffer from chronic loneliness.

This is a negative, Mr. Moynihan says, that comes from a positive.

The positive here being that people are living longer, and that they can live in their own homes.

“One in ten older people who live alone can’t afford to heat their whole home. Then we have what we call excess winter deaths.

“We always think of hypothermia and I’m not a doctor but when people are cold they pick up lots of things like infections which they can eventually die from.

“I once read that more older people die of the cold here in Ireland than in Finland because they don’t have the money to heat their homes.”

At Christmas, ALONE delivers hampers to people who avail of services and a Christmas day dinner delivery for a number of people.

“We try to be there. We would encourage people to check on their neighbours, relatives or friends and realise that not all older people are the same - some of our volunteers are older than people using the service,” Mr. Moynihan added.

ALONE’s services include: Befriending and support, Support Co-ordination (Provides one point of contact that opens up a world of supports to an older person so that no older person is left behind), Housing with support and Intermediary services such as working with other be-friending services, charities, family members and more.