Tressa Burke on how we can all play a part in tackling loneliness amongst disabled Scots
There's nothing worse. Knowing that somewhere nearby people are getting together, laughing, learning and growing and you're not a part of it.
To feel like we belong is a fundamental need. (It's even highlighted in Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs.) We are social creatures by nature and we instinctively seek out social connections.
Many of us have natural networks of support around us; we belong to a family, a workplace, various groups of friends, social groups and activities, volunteering or community groups and so on.
We take so many of these social connections for granted. Sometimes we forget how crucial they are to our sense of identity, our sense of belonging and also to our well-being.
We also tend to forget how isolating it can be for a disabled person who doesn't have natural networks of support in the same way. Physical, attitudinal and social barriers can often prevent a disabled person from belonging to their community or participating in society.
Simple things like getting together with friends on your birthday can seem surreal for a disabled person. One Glasgow Disability Alliance (GDA) members recently said, “This year, for the first time in my life, I was able to invite my own friends to my birthday party and not just have friends of my parents.”
We tend to forget how isolating it can be for a disabled person who doesn't have natural networks of support
Tressa Burke
The wonderful thing is that it can be fairly easy to support disabled people to belong, to get involved. All we need is to want to do it! And then we can plan how to facilitate that belonging – making sure we’re asking people about their needs and not being too scared to offend- because the worst offense of all is to do nothing.
We can even start small by thinking about the disabled people we know and considering how they manage to access basic things we all take for granted- like buses, schools and colleges, shops and even workplaces. We can join disabled people in challenging small injustices- for example, have you ever been in a pub or restaurant, went to use the accessible loo and found it full of boxes and other things being stored? Or have you ever seen a bus driver giving a disabled person a hard time because they don’t want to put out the ramp? Standing alongside disabled people and politely challenging poor access or attitudes is one way to help. Another is that we can make groups, organisations and even services more accessible. And we can talk to disabled people who are neighbours, colleagues or even friends of friends to hear their views and check out other ways we might be able to help.
By being more aware of the barriers and working together to tackle these, we can better include disabled people in our communities and society.
Many disabled people are extremely isolated and we know that a lack of social connections is as harmful to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and can lead to early death (Scottish Government and University College London). We can't emphasise enough the importance of connections for connections' sake.
As another GDA member said about becoming more connected, “I had no purpose. I had no hope. I had no life. Now I have a reason to get up and to go on.”
Let's all do what we can to get connected and stay connected!
Tressa Burke is chief executive of Glasgow Disability Alliance
