Social isolation and loneliness: Recovering our Connections 2023 to 2026 - easy read
A plan to help people in Scotland feel less lonely and get in touch with other people more.
Social Isolation And Loneliness : A Plan - Recovering Our Connections 2023 to 2026 : Easy Read
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In 2018 the Scottish Government wrote a plan called A Connected Scotland.
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The plan aims to help people in Scotland to feel less lonely and to get in touch with other people more.
Framework
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We want to see a Scotland where people and communities are more connected.
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In this document connected means things like:
- meeting other people
- talking to other people
- messaging other people
- getting to know other people
- making new friends
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We think everyone should get a chance to make friendships.
It doesn't matter:
- how old they are
- where they live
- how they live their life
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We want Scotland to be a place where everyone is met with kindness.
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Our 4 main aims
- We are healthy and active
- We live in safe, friendly, strong communities
- We grow up feeling loved and looked after
- We have human rights in place
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4 things that will happen
- more people will understand how bad loneliness is, and how to change it
- less people will feel lonely
- less people will have difficulties that come from being lonely
- more things will be happening to keep people connected
Public Health and Equality
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We know that loneliness is a health problem in Scotland.
The longer someone feels lonely, the worse it is for their mental health and body health.
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Anyone of any age can feel loneliness.
But people who have other difficulties too are more likely to feel lonely.
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How connected we are now
In 2018 there was a questionnaire called The Scottish Household Survey.
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2 in every 10 people said they had felt lonely in the week before answering.
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There was more loneliness among:
- people between 16 and 34 years old
- people older than 75
- people who lived in built up areas like cities
- people who lived in very poor areas
- people from some ethnic groups
People from an ethnic group might have the same language, culture or religion.
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The loneliest people were disabled people.
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COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic made everything harder.
Because everyone had to stay away from each other.
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5 out of every 10 people said they felt lonely in the week before answering.
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Nearly 2 out of every 10 people said that they felt lonely most of the time.
The cost of living crisis
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The cost of living crisis is where the cost of things like food, heating and fuel have gone up so much that many people cannot afford them.
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4 out of every 10 people said they will have to limit how much they meet up with other people because of the cost of living crisis.
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Which people are most lonely at the moment?
- disabled people
- people with long term illnesses
- young people
- people who don't have much money
- people who can't get online
- people who live on their own
- people who don't have green spaces nearby – like parks
What we have done so far
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A group has been set up.
It is called the Social Isolation and Loneliness Advisory Group.
There are 17 organisations in the group.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic 15 organisations shared emergency funds.
The funds helped them to:
- keep phone helplines open
- give kindness calls and friendship calls
- give people learning activities, wellbeing help and online events
- work with young families who were finding life hard
- give money for projects
- work on mental wellbeing with young people
- help disabled people and carers
How the Plan was made
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Lots of different government groups helped to make this Plan.
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The Social Isolation and Loneliness Advisory Group collected people's experiences of loneliness.
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These are the most important aims:
- learning from what happened during COVID-19
- finding out what works to stop loneliness happening
- helping people to feel more confident after the pandemic
- looking after people - like unpaid carers - who can't get services
- thinking carefully about people with protected characteristics
- making sure that public spaces are good for people meeting up
- use new ideas
- easily get smaller funding amounts
- get enough funding so that work can carry on and be checked to see how the plan is working
- get the whole of the Scottish Government to take part
Our 4 priorities
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Priorities are the most important aims at the moment.
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Priority 1 – Making communities feel like they have their own power for change
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Communities can be people who live in the same area.
Communities can also be people who share the same interest – like a hobby or a religion.
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We want everyone to understand loneliness better.
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We want communities to make good decisions about helping people to meet up.
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We want to make sure that Government money spent in communities helps people meet up and feel less lonely.
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We want different types of organisations to work together and own these projects.
Priority 2 – Helping people to keep a positive attitude
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A positive attitude means that someone feels mostly hopeful about life.
It means looking for good things to happen.
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We want more:
- happy friendships
- healthy relationships
- kindness
- mental wellbeing
- talking between older people and younger people
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We want less stigma.
In this document stigma means that someone might feel embarrassed to say they feel lonely or need help.
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Priority 3 – Making places and times when people can get together
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We want to make sure that people can find out what there is happening.
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We want to help make more activities and groups happen.
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Priority 4 – Giving Scotland systems that help people to connect
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We want our care system to work together on loneliness.
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We want our transport system to be accessible so that people can meet up more easily.
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We want there to be better online connections and help for people to use them.
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We want our communities and places to be better for people to meet in.
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We want our housing system to make meeting up easier.
Other things
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Funding
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We will make sure that money is spent carefully.
And we will help smaller organisations to get funds.
Equality
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We will make an Equality Impact Assessment.
This means we will check to see that our Plan treats everyone fairly and does not leave any groups of people out.
Communication
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We will try to make sure that everyone across Scotland knows about our Plan.
Reporting
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There will be reports on how we are doing.
The reports will be written in 2024 and 2026.
How we will know if it is going well
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We will:
- see how our Actions are going
- give funding to lots of different types of community projects
- write and read reports
- look at the next Scottish Household Survey results to see if people feel less lonely
- see more people trying to stop loneliness
- see more and more places doing things to help people connect
Contact
Email: dobs@gov.scot
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