Bluebird Care’s ‘Combating Loneliness’ campaign ensures no-one is on their own on Christmas day

Christmas is a wonderful time of year when families spend time together celebrating. However, there are many people who spend Christmas alone, particularly those who are older and live in rural areas.

Bluebird Care’s ‘Combating Loneliness’ campaign ensures no-one is on their own on Christmas day

Christmas is a wonderful time of year when families spend time together to celebrate the festive season.  However, there are many people in your local community who spend Christmas on their own, particularly those who are older and live in rural areas.  Bluebird Care is trying to change this.

Bluebird Care spends 365 days a year delivering care at home to its customers to support them to live independently in their own homes. In 2019 the company launched its ‘Combating Loneliness’ campaign to reduce social isolation and promote activities for older people.  As part of this campaign Bluebird Care ensured that none of its customers were alone on Christmas Day.  Any customer who did not have friends or family visiting or did not have a scheduled care visit were surprised by the company’s care assistants arriving with a Christmas tree and a freshly prepared Christmas Dinner.

Phil Miles and John Prendergast, Directors of Bluebird Care commented that “It is a privilege to be able to do something small that has such a profound impact on people’s happiness and wellbeing.  The credit must go to our outstanding team of Care Assistants who came to us with the idea and spent their own time ensuring that no one was left alone on Christmas Day.  We both feel amazingly proud of such a dedicated and caring team of people”

For more information please contact Kim Teagle at Bluebird Care on 01256 762324 or email kinteagle@bluebirdcare.co.uk

Pictured below are Tina Baggs (left) and Deanna O’Shea-Thomas (right) with Michael Mercer a Bluebird Care customer in his own home.

About Loneliness

Most people will feel lonely at some point in their lives. It’s a deeply personal experience that - in most cases - will thankfully pass. But for a growing number of people, particularly those in later life, loneliness can define their lives and have a significant impact on their wellbeing.

Loneliness: in figures

- 3.6 million older people in the UK live alone, of whom over 2 million are aged 75+

- 1.9 million older people often feel ignored or invisible.

- Loneliness can be as harmful for our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

What causes loneliness?

We often feel lonely when we feel we don't have strong social relationships or are unhappy with the ones we have.

There have been several studies that have identified a range of factors associated with being lonely in older age. These factors include:

• social networks (living alone, being widowed or divorced, a lack of contact with friends and family and limited opportunities to participate in social occasions)
• health (poor health, limited mobility, social care needs or cognitive and sensory impairment)
• individual characteristics (age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, low income, retirement)
• neighbourhood characteristics (structures of buildings and streets, provision of local amenities, territorial boundaries, area reputation, neighbourliness, material deprivation of area of residence).

Loneliness is associated with depression, sleep problems, impaired cognitive health, heightened vascular resistance, hypertension, psychological stress and mental health problems.