Hammersmith & Fulham Council and Imperial College London are leading the way in the fight to tackle loneliness and isolation.
They have launched a first-of-its-kind project to map loneliness to produce a visual snapshot of social isolation and loneliness in the borough and improve support for residents.
“Tackling loneliness and isolation in H&F is a priority for the council and our health partners,” said Cllr Ben Coleman, H&F Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care.
“This will be the first such survey in the UK and it will help us hone the support we give residents.”
This project will help give the council invaluable data to tailor and target its support even better than now.
Dr Austen El-Osta, Director of the Self-Care Academic Research Unit (SCARU) in the School of Public Health, who leads the project, said: “Loneliness is one of society's entrenched problems, and has a significant impact on mental health, life expectancy and quality of life.
“As loneliness and isolation can affect people of all ages and from all different walks of life, it is important for us to gain insights from as diverse a range of people as possible. We hope that members of the community will help us to capture a snapshot of the issue to better inform interventions and the future direction of research into an important area of study that is often overlooked.”
The online survey is available in multiple languages and should take no longer than ten minutes to complete.
It looks at social life and interactions, local community, employment, age, and level of education.
People can complete the survey anonymously and don’t have to provide personal information except a postcode. This will be used to generate an anonymised heat map of loneliness and isolation in the area street by street.
British Sign Language introduction to the loneliness survey
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