Key questions for everyone
1. What needs to change in your community to reduce social isolation and loneliness and increase the range and quality of social connections?
Input your answer here:
Being to be able to meet as a community and have activities that could help develop relationships across the different age groups. To provide a meeting place where we could all go for a chat and a cuppa and have a warm place, friendly where all could benefit. To be able to work together and become a big happy family together, share experiences, knowledge and be able to help each other out with any problems that we may have. To show all the next generations that working together is better than being lonely, sad. To be able to support each other when in times of trouble and show that we all care instead of being selfish, stubborn and lonely. Places where we can find jobs other than the job centre, a place where helping each other can be a benefit.
2. Who is key at local level in driving this change, and what do you want to see them doing more (or less) of?
Input answer here:
am not sure, local council - see them trying to fund more support groups for all ages.
3. What does Government need to do nationally to better empower communities and create the conditions to allow social connections to flourish?
Input answer here:
provide more funding and acknowledge that there is a problem, loneliness leads to dying younger and the elder spending more time on there own because the care industry only allows there staff to go in for short periods of time, plus if family is not local it is harder to keep an eye on older relatives. More day trips for them and places to go chat, get hot meal, also that there is loneliness in younger people to as there s not much for them too.
Detailed questions
4. Do you agree or disagree with our definitions of (i) social isolation and (ii) loneliness? Please provide comments, particularly if you disagree.
Input answer here:
agree/ or disagree, it depends in what social isolation or loneliness is to somebody. when you are in your house 7 days, 24hours a day, 365 days a year, you only leave a couple hours a few days to do shopping, and you do not have many friends and you feel sad, lonely, and have no where to go . sometimes going to the job centre to see your advisor is the only other adult you might be seeing. When you have nothing and you are getting up and getting through a day and asking your self why? am I still alive. When you have no social relationships and are very much lonely because the groups your where attached to had there funding cut.
5. Do you agree with the evidence sources we are drawing from? Are there other evidence sources you think we should be using?
Input answer here:
agree wit what is there, you could be doing more.
6. Are there examples of best practice outside Scotland (either elsewhere in the UK or overseas) focused on tackling social isolation and loneliness that you think we should be looking at?
Input answer here:
no, I can not think of any practices out side Scotland.
7. Are you aware of any good practice in a local community to build social connections that you want to tell us about?
Input answer here:
no there is needs to be more good practices in the local community.
8. How can we all work together challenge stigma around social isolation and loneliness, and raise awareness of it as an issue? Are there examples of people doing this well that you’re aware of?
Input answer here:
no, there needs to be more done, now before it gets worse.
9. Using the Carnegie UK Trust’s report as a starting point, what more should we be doing to promote kindness as a route to reducing social isolation and loneliness?
Input answer here:
Teaching, group activities, Getting the older generation involved in education, speaking to families, friends and the community to wok together to combat this.
10. How can we ensure that those who experience both poverty and social isolation receive the right support?
Input answer here:
By speaking to somebody who is in this situation. I am suffering from poverty as I do not have any money left so I can not get out and therefore am suffering social isolation. plus am living in a very deprived area of Scotland and therefore funding for groups that could tackle social isolation has been cut and is going through more budget cuts and therefore loneliness is going to get higher and I only leave my flat to pay bills, get food and then to see my advisor at the job centre every fortnight and therefore I do no know many people. Therefore setting up group activities that could get me out and about and be able to support and help those in the community would be grateful.
11. What do we need to be doing more of (or less of) to ensure that we tackle social isolation and loneliness for the specific life stages and groups mentioned above?
Input answer here:
By teaching, group activities that would help every body. Call centres, Friendly faces, chat and a cuppa.
12. How can health services play their part in better reducing social isolation and loneliness?
Input answer here:
having someone you can chat too.
13. How can we ensure that the social care sector contributes to tackling social isolation and loneliness?
Input answer here:
by providing funding, resources, centres, and more trained staff.
14. What more can we do to encourage people to get involved in local groups that promote physical activity?
Input answer here:
by providing a means of getting there, funding, resources, education, training of staff.
15. How can we better equip people with the skills to establish and nurture strong and positive social connections?
Input answer here:
by providing education and training for those who could help, teach, train those who could care out the jobs needed.
16. How can we better ensure that our services that support children and young people are better able to identify where someone may be socially isolated, and capable of offering the right support?
Input answer here:
by providing something for very body that they would feel comfortable doing and having local resources, trained staff.
17. How can the third sector and social enterprise play a stronger role in helping to tackle social isolation and loneliness in communities?
Input answer here:
by providing support, materials and funding towards community projects.
18. What more can the Scottish Government do to promote volunteering and help remove barriers to volunteering, particular for those who may be isolated?
Input answer here:
by promoting it and by providing a bigger variety of volunteering within the community, which could lead onto finding work, training and getting a job.
19. How can employers and business play their part in reducing social isolation and loneliness?
Input answer here:
By having more social meetings where every body can be part of Families, singles, elderly too. Nobody is left out and by providing open days where everybody can come along and have more free days into National trust days as they are fun and getting to explore the past is fun.
20. What are the barriers presented by the lived environment in terms of socially connecting? How can these be addressed?
Input answer here:
Lack of money, funding, the big gap between poor and the rich. By recognising the gaps and trying to do something about it.
21. How can cultural services and agencies play their part in reducing social isolation and loneliness?
Input answer here:
by excepting there is a problem and trying to tackle it by providing more funding for group organisations to provide more to tackle social isolation and loneliness in the community.
22. How can transport services play their part in reducing social isolation and loneliness?
Input answer here:
by providing better prices and services for all to use. Bus, train, taxis.
23. How best can we ensure that people have both access to digital technology and the ability to use it?
Input answer here:
By giving use a chance to be able to get access to digital Technology and providing free access for those who do not have. To provide classes, group activities to show how nd where you can get, better prices technology.
Any other comments
24. Taking into account answers to questions elsewhere, is there anything else we should be doing that doesn’t fall into any of these categories?
Input answer here:
Single parents are struggling as we do not have as much support as would like, some of us do not have family around us that can help us out, so we then become stranded and lonely, when you do not have a support net work around you. When you children become older but still to young to be left on there own, you are in a more complicated situation and therefore finding work to suit leaves you more isolated and lonely as you have no contact with any body.
25. Do you agree with the framework we have created to measure our progress in tackling social isolation and loneliness?
Input answer here:
am not sure your framework will work but if you have put things in place at a government leave but local councils are doing budget cuts how is it going to work.
26. Is there anything missing from this framework that you think is important for us to consider?
Input answer here:
I can not think of any thing the now, except funding is a must.
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