Out & About Spring 2019

JONATHAN HOPSON

JONATHAN HOPSON recently attended a seminar on loneliness organised by the Volunteer Centre West Berkshire. He encourages us all to make a diference in our local community

The Mortimer Village Lunch Club helps relieve loneliness and prolong independence by providing a meeting point for older people in the community. Set up more than eight years ago, it runs twice monthly and caters for up to 40 local residents. For 30 years, Enrych has enabled adults with a physical disability to enjoy leisure, learning and sporting opportunities through partnership with a volunteer or other support services. www.enrych.org. uk/region/berkshire/ The Plunkett Foundation in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, highlights the role of rural community businesses in helping people overcome issues such as loneliness and isolation. #TheLittleThings reduce loneliness and isolation. There are hundreds in the UK, but the nearest locally are Didcot and Enham Alamein. To find out more, and maybe start your own, visit www.menssheds.org.uk All Aboard in Redwood House, Hungerford, meets on the third Thursday of the month, offering a time to chat and play board games over a cup of tea. Call Catherine 07717 133021 or Sue 07922017464 Kennet Cassette (Newbury talking newspaper) was set up in 1976 by Peter Dann to give blind and visually impaired people in West Berkshire access to the tape cassettes. Since October 2017, the service has gone digital and now uses USB memory sticks. Fair Close Centre, Newtown Road, Newbury provides day centre services and a meals on wheels service and also offers a transport service. Men’s Sheds develops community spaces for men to connect to help Newbury Weekly News, by providing transcripts of newspaper articles on

I was recently invited to attend a seminar on loneliness organised by the Volunteer Centre West Berkshire at Fair Close Day Centre, Newbury. Following a powerful introduction by Richard Benyon – his key message could be loosely summarised as ‘get involved and help make a difference’ – a range of interesting speakers outlined some of the local initiatives to help combat loneliness. Loneliness is more prevalent than many people realise. Indeed, the government has recognised the importance of this issue, and, following the pioneering work started by the late Jo Cox in setting up a Loneliness Commission, a Minister for Loneliness, currently Mims Davies, the MP for Eastleigh, was appointed last year. One in three older people are affected by loneliness and nearly 50 per cent of all older people in the UK live alone, with 17 per cent saying they see family and friends less than once a week. Another sobering fact is that one in 10 older people visit their GP because they are lonely. Nearly four million older people in the UK say the television is their main

form of company and more than one million say they feel ‘chronically lonely’. Loneliness is not simply a later life issue. On the contrary, research from the Office for National Statistics shows that young people are among the loneliest groups in the UK. Social media, FOMO, (fear of missing out) and work, education and housing pressures all play a role. So young people feel they have hundreds of connections, but few roots, whereas conversely, many older people feel they have deep roots, but few connections. Volunteer Centre West Berkshire has recently started a new project – Befriend West Berkshire – which recruits and trains volunteers to become befrienders to socially isolated people over the age of 50. Through this scheme I have befriended a wonderful 95-year-old local man and we meet up around once a week. A recent highlight was visiting the de Havilland aircraft museum near Watford and watching him gain access to a confined space in the fuselage of an RAF Mark 1 Mosquito – the last time he did this was around 75 years ago.

Contact the West Berkshire Volunteer Centre on (01635) 49004 for more information about volunteering and the Befriend initiative or visit www.volunteerwestberks.org.uk/befriend.htm

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