Life After Lockdown: coronavirus and loneliness

The coronavirus crisis is exposing how a lack of meaningful connections can increase feelings of loneliness – and many people fear they will become lonelier in the future.

To coincide with Loneliness Awareness Week, a new British Red Cross report – Life After Lockdown: Tackling Loneliness Among the Left Behind – has been released that reveals over one in four of adults (28%) worry no one would notice if something happened to them and a third (33%) fear their loneliness will only get worse.

Of those polled, 41% report feeling lonelier since lockdown, with a third (33%) confessing they haven’t had a meaningful conversation in the last week. Despite signs of community spirit making a comeback during lockdown, 37% say their neighbours are like strangers to them.

Life After Lockdown also shows that 31% feel they have no one to turn to and, for many, their lack of quality connections and loneliness is accompanied by other vulnerabilities – a lower income, longterm health conditions, mental health issues, the challenges of coming to the UK as a refugee or person seeking asylum.

Aston spoke to Naomi Phillips from British Red Cross to discuss why we
must all work together to make sure the understanding, will and funding is there to help the most isolated and tackle the root causes of loneliness itself.

Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash