The online and phone service in England, Scotland and Wales helps people find the projects that most suit them.
As the catalogue of evidence to the negative health and social effects of loneliness continues to build, millions of pounds have been pledged to grassroots projects across Yorkshire working with those suffering from the blight of loneliness.
While some local authorities and charities have seen their social care spending slashed, projects in Sheffield, Leeds and North Yorkshire have benefitted from £13m in spending specifically aimed at loneliness and social isolation.
‘Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Over the past few weeks, I have become freshly aware of the wisdom of this saying, aware both of this great battle we fight and of the kindness of people that runs like an underground river beneath the noise and hurtle of public events.
Two months ago, I wrote a piece in the Observer about the death of my father, who had had dementia for many years, but had been leading a contented life at home until he went into hospital with leg ulcers. I described how he entered able to walk, talk, wash himself, feed himself, work in his beloved garden, listen to poetry, be happy – and how, five weeks later, he came out a skeleton, incontinent, immobile, inarticulate, bed-bound. He lived like a ghost in his own life for eight more months; his dying was both a great sorrow but also his release.
