“Loneliness in Britain has escalated from a personal misfortune to a social epidemic.” (Jo Cox)
We are better connected than ever but for a lot of us this is the age of loneliness.
There are nine million lonely people in the UK and four million of them are older people.
A look at more facts
Loneliness, living alone and poor social connections are as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day
Holt-Lunstad, 2010
Half a million older people go at least five or six days a week without seeing or speaking to anyone at all
Age UK, 2016
Current research indeed shows a strong association between helping behavior on the one hand, and well-being, health, and longevity, on the other
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.485.8406&rep=rep1&type=pdf
New Society 