{"id":27247,"date":"2018-12-01T14:54:18","date_gmt":"2018-12-01T14:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=27247"},"modified":"2018-12-01T14:54:18","modified_gmt":"2018-12-01T14:54:18","slug":"afraid-no-one-will-notice-if-something-bad-happens-to-you-youre-not-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/afraid-no-one-will-notice-if-something-bad-happens-to-you-youre-not-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Afraid no-one will notice if something bad happens to you? You&#8217;re not alone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s2\">More than half of UK adults who experience loneliness are afraid that \u201cno one will notice if something bad happens to them\u201d, according to new research conducted by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.redcross.org.uk\/get-help\/get-help-with-loneliness\">British Red Cross<\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">Approximately nine million people in the UK say that they \u201calways or often\u201d feel lonely and that they are unable to form lasting, social connections with people around them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">A survey of 4000 adults in the UK was carried out which looked at the extent of people across the country suffering from loneliness and social isolation. The results showed that, out of a fifth of the population that feel lonely, more than a third of people do not know how to cope with loneliness, two-thirds often feel completely alone when they are surrounded by other people, and one in nine people feel that they would not have anyone in their lives that they could rely on in a time of crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">It is also revealed that young people aged 16-24 (72%) and those who live in urban areas (61%) are the most likely to suffer from loneliness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">Transitional life events are found to be the most common moments that increase the risk of loneliness amounts in individuals, such as breakups, the emergence of a severe health issue or retirement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\"> \u00a0<\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-27248\" style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2018\/11\/Snip20181128_19.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"246\" height=\"218\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-27250\" style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2018\/11\/Snip20181128_21.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"246\" height=\"235\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-27249 alignnone\" style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2018\/11\/Snip20181128_20.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"255\" height=\"237\" \/><\/p>\n<pre class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center\">Other drivers of loneliness and barriers to connection\n <em>Statistics: British Red Cross; Graph: Leyi Chen<\/em><\/pre>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">Chronic loneliness could have serious impacts on people\u2019s biological, psychological and behavioural spheres.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_27251\" style=\"width: 744px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27251\" class=\"wp-image-27251 \" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2018\/11\/Snip20181128_22.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"734\" height=\"550\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-27251\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Summary of biological, psychological and behavioural impacts of loneliness <em>Source: British Red Cross<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Click below to listen to what an artist (who prefers to be anonymous) thinks about her loneliness.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How it feels to be lonely by Chen Leyi\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F537748401&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxheight=750&#038;maxwidth=500\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">Zo\u00eb Abrams, the Executive Director of Communications &amp; Advocacy at the British Red Cross, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/health-and-families\/loneliness-adults-fear-isolation-social-connections-uk-red-cross-survey-a8652061.html\">said<\/a> it is important to forge social connections with other people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">\u201cLoneliness and social isolation doesn\u2019t discriminate\u2026 Every one of us would want someone to reach out to us if we found ourselves all alone. People who need our help may be closer than we think, and could feel much more connected if we offer them out kindness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">In order to tackle the problem, Prime Minister Theresa May has launched a loneliness strategy which allows GPs to refer patients who are experiencing loneliness to community activities and voluntary services. This practice, which is known as \u201csocial prescribing\u201d is expected to offer people tailored support to help improve their health and wellbeing instead of immediately defaulting to medicine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">In her foreword for the strategy, May wrote: \u201cThis strategy is only the beginning of delivering a long and far-reaching social change in our country &#8211; but it is a vital first step in a national mission to end loneliness in our lifetimes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/10DowningStreet\/status\/1051815723016826880<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/is-this-the-solution-to-loneliness\/\">Is this the solution to loneliness?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\"><i>If you are experiencing loneliness or are suffering from social isolation, you can find support through organisations such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.redcross.org.uk\/get-help\/get-help-with-loneliness\">British Red Cross<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mind.org.uk\/information-support\/tips-for-everyday-living\/loneliness\/#.W_4kWZP7St9\">Mind<\/a> or you can talk to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.samaritans.org\/\">Samaritans<\/a> on 116 123.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Words, Original Graphics and Audio: Leyi Chen | Subbing: Sorcha Gilheany<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than half of UK adults who experience loneliness are afraid that \u201cno one will notice if something bad happens to them\u201d, according to new research conducted by the British Red Cross. Approximately nine million&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":27375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,93],"tags":[3831,4098],"class_list":["post-27247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-news","tag-loneliness","tag-mental-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}