{"id":30787,"date":"2018-12-13T14:02:17","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T14:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=30787"},"modified":"2018-12-13T14:02:17","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T14:02:17","slug":"lonely-this-christmas-meet-the-volunteers-trying-to-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/12\/13\/lonely-this-christmas-meet-the-volunteers-trying-to-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Lonely this Christmas: Meet the volunteers trying to help"},"content":{"rendered":"

EVERYONE has a different idea of what makes a normal Christmas Day. For some, it\u2019s the first sip of buck’s fizz at a totally unacceptable time of day.
\nFor others, it\u2019s bowls of pigs in blankets and rubbish Christmas cracker jokes. Midnight mass, the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special, or endless board games fuelled by post-dinner Baileys. Everyone has their own ideal Christmas.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nWhat makes all these things enjoyable, though we might not admit it, is being with friends and family. Even miserable golf-obsessed Uncle Ken. No-one wants to be alone.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nThis year, the UK became the first country in the world to appoint a minister for Loneliness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nTracey Couch took up the role, created in the wake of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness. The commission was set up as a legacy for the Labour MP, who was murdered by a far-right extremist in 2016.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nIn 2016, Age UK carried out a nationwide survey and discovered half a million older people go five or six days a week without seeing or speaking to anyone. This year, the British Red Cross surveyed 4,000 people of all ages, a third of those said they often felt alone. A fifth said they had no close friends.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nIt\u2019s at Christmas, when most of us are catching up with friends and family, that those suffering can feel most alone.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nFor a lot of people who feel lonely, it\u2019s not that they are alone physically, but they have a disease or a disability which makes communication difficult to the point where they can feel alone even when sitting at the dinner table on Christmas day with the people they love.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nThis feeling of being “alone in a crowd” is something most of us have probably experienced at some point.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nMartin Griffiths, works for a pan-Wales service, Live Well with Hearing Loss. The project is aims to improve the lives of those with hearing difficulties. Martin himself is partially deaf and knows how isolating and stressful the Christmas period can be.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u201cEvery year we get deaf and hard of hearing people telling us about problems they have with their families. There might be games and singing and catching up, but often people who are hard of hearing feel like they are struggling through. They make the decision to isolate themselves. They feel a little angry and a little sad that they are with people they love but cannot join in as they used to.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nThis is most distressing for those who have recently lost their hearing. It can take up to 10 years for people to fully come to terms with the fact that they are going deaf.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nOver that time, they often detach themselves from those around them, and do not seek the help and support that they need.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nThis reluctance, is partly due to attitudes and prejudices towards those with hearing problems. Martin gave an example of a deaf man and his partner who go shopping. The deaf person asks a question in a store and the shop assistant addresses the reply to his partner. It is easy to see how constantly experiencing moments like this can leave you feeling segregated and alone.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nThere are plenty of simple ways to make people feel more included.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u201cThat might be turning the TV down in the background, playing games which are less reliant on hearing. Or using basic communication like looking straight at people and speaking clearly.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nThe number of deaf people in the UK is growing each year, primarily because people are living longer. Longer life comes at a cost, and it has also led to a rise in the number of people living with dementia.\u00a0<\/span>
\nThere are 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, with that number set to rise to over one million by 2025.\u00a0<\/span>
\nAbout 225,000 will develop dementia this year, that\u2019s one every three minutes.\u00a0<\/span>
\nLoneliness is just one of the many issues that people living with dementia have to contend with.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nRhiannon Donnelly, is a co-ordinator for Side by Side, a project run by Alzheimer’s UK: “We face a real problem over the coming years as the number of people with dementia grows, healthcare services will come under increasing pressure.”
\n“We begun this scheme to\u00a0help those living with dementia by providing company and support on a weekly basis.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nSerena Purslow, is an experienced volunteer for Side by Side:
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