At a time where Age UK estimates that over 2 million people over the age of 75 are living alone, it's more important than ever to work proactively to support and prevent loneliness from occurring. In 2018 Age UK published a study that is eye opening in the way it describes just how prevalent loneliness is in older people. Their report advises that 'If we don't tackle loneliness on older people by 2026, there will be 2 million people over 50 in England who will often feel lonely.' We know that loneliness can lead to feelings of isolation, and can contribute to depression and low mood having a significant impact on wellbeing and mental well-health.
It's our mission this year to really focus on ways that we can be proactive in the community to help prevent loneliness and to support those who are struggling with feelings of loneliness. We offer a befriending service as part of the core support that we deliver. This plays a really vital role in the work that we do and aims to ensure that anyone receiving our support feels valued throughout.
Befriending is a really important aspect of support and the benefits it can have aren't always widely talked about. For someone who doesn't have access to many meaningful connections through friends, family and social groups, having a friend making regular calls can have a hugely positive impact to help the person to feel valued and maintain a meaningful connection to combat feelings of loneliness that can contribute to low mood.
Although we are a private service many people don't realize they may be eligible for funding from the local council to contribute towards their health and social care needs. We always recommend talking to the local council to find out if you may be eligible for help towards your care cost before getting in touch with us, as this can help to ensure our service is financially accessible to you. Our consultations are also free, so if you're unsure we really recommend reaching out to us and booking a consultation, and we can talk through how we can meet your support needs, and look at if you may be eligible for funding and help direct you to the right person to speak to to help put your funding in place.
Our company is built on a foundation of passionate and caring staff members whose mission is to be a friend to you. We take your values, interests and support needs on board and embed them into the support we provide to help build a meaningful professional rapport with you. Getting to know your interests also helps us to look at local activities and groups that may be of interest and benefit to you, to help encourage you to build on meaningful connections in the community, to help widen your social network and support you to make new friendships, working to combat loneliness long term.
We can offer transporting services, to accompany you to knew places to help keep you doing all of the things you love, and finding ways to bring them to you if there are barriers preventing you from going. Whatever it is you need we're here. Our mission is to be a friend, That's what friends are for.
You can find out more about our services here by visiting www.farrowfriends.co.uk/get-support
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