Susan Smith argues the Scottish Parliament report into loneliness highlights the need to ramp up preventative health spending
Heart-wrenching stories of social isolation were heard at the launch of the Scottish Parliament equal opportunities committee report into loneliness this week.
Scottish voluntary organisations told stories of older people visiting their doctor weekly because they have no-one else for company, young people who have forgotten how to be in company with others, a woman who lived in the dark for months and a man who travelled on the bus all day just to get out of the house. These are powerful examples of how loneliness is hurting so many people in our society.
In its report, the MSPs found that loneliness is a result of a wide range of modern conditions. One of the more obvious is that people are living longer, often surviving the family and friends whose company they’ve enjoyed their whole lives.
Once again, public research has revealed that where problems exist in our society, there are community and voluntary groups who know how to tackle them
But it’s not just older Scots who are struggling, people on low incomes, young people, those with mental health problems, illnesses and disabilities are all affected for a range of reasons. And it is discovering this that has lead the committee to recommend loneliness be prioritised alongside poverty and poor housing as a key strand of Scotland’s public health agenda.
So far, so good.
On a positive note, the committee found that community and voluntary organisations are helping people across Scotland become more connected. Once again, public research has revealed that where problems exist in our society, there are community and voluntary groups who know how to tackle them.
We in the third sector also know, however, and the committee knows from evidence provided by national charities Age Scotland and Childline Scotland, that fantastic projects run by groups such as Impact Arts are are just skimming the surface. The reasons their impact is limited is perhaps beyond the scope of this inquiry, but is central to tackling the issue – they are not being funded or empowered to do so.
Buried in the committee’s extensive list of recommendations is something about improving the link between loneliness interventions and preventative health spending. It’s there alongside a national loneliness strategy, a publicity campaign, work in schools, a link worker system, evaluating best practise, improving community transport, investigating the link between physical health and social isolation and so on.
All of that obscures the key finding that community initiatives are the best way to tackle the problem of loneliness, which in turn will improve wider health and social outcomes.
Simply put: spending on community services improves lives and saves money.
This is the message the Scottish Government should hear from this enquiry and increasing preventative health spending should be the result.
