Loneliness Awareness Week: Reduce the stigma of loneliness and encourage people to talk more openly about it

It is reported that there are 1.2 million chronically lonely older people in the UK and that the number of over-50s experiencing loneliness is set to reach two million by 2025/6. This has undoubtedly been exacerbated by COVID-19.

Hosted by Marmalade Trust, the UK’s leading loneliness charity for all ages, Loneliness Awareness Week is an annual campaign which raises awareness of loneliness and gets people talking about it and aims to reduce the stigma of loneliness and encourage people to talk more openly about it.

This year’s Loneliness Awareness Week takes place between the 13th – 17th June 2022 and the Housing LIN would like to show support by dawing attention to a range of resources and tools hosted on the ‘Combating loneliness and reducing social isolation’ webpages, supported by Clarion Housing Group.

Arranged into 7 key topic areas, these webpages showcase relevant guidance and policy instruments, useful research findings (such as the DICE research project findings) and examples of services and innovative projects that offer practical solutions in combatting loneliness and reducing social isolation.

The resources address the impact that housing and support services can have on responding to these types of need amongst older people