Loneliness kills.
In that two-word summary, is the essence of a new study from Brigham Young University. With an ageing population, isolation among the elderly is becoming an ever more serious matter. Life or death.
The downloadable study, published in the journal PLoS Medicine, finds that a lack of social relationships is as bad as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or being an alcoholic and is more harmful than not exercising or obesity.
I, of course, think immediately of adults with cerebral palsy - especially those who, while living with parents, or in residential settings or independently, have care plans. How many care plans make provision for friends, for social interaction, for relationships that are not based on money and employment contracts? How might this report influence care practice or even conductive education programmes with adults? At the very least, the study gives us a fresh insight.
Here are some extracts from the News Release
“We take relationships for granted as humans – we’re like fish that don’t notice the water .... that constant interaction is not only beneficial psychologically but directly to our physical health.”
"There are many pathways through which friends and family influence health for the better, ranging from a calming touch to finding meaning in life.'
"When someone is connected to a group and feels responsibility for other people, that sense of purpose and meaning translates to taking better care of themselves and taking fewer risks"
That last, that short phrase "that sense of purpose and meaning" stands out for me; stands out conductively, stands out because "purpose and meaning", especially in the lives of disabled adults who need all manner of "care", does not come about by accident, by itself, as if by magic. How many of their care plans make explicit provision for working with adults with cerebral palsy (many with specific communication difficulties) to enhance purpose and meaning in their lives? How might conductors and conductive education make a distinctive contribution?
“Relationships provide a level of protection across all ages.” And, one might add, across all abilities.
Rather inconclusively, one wonders whether, for adults with cerebral palsy who have care plans, there are national statistics on mortality or maybe on mental health. I shall have to Google it, I suppose!
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For those who want to read more, aside from the downloadable report, the "Editors' Summary" in the News Release provides a readable overview.
In the UK, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt addressed 'loneliness' in 2013 and again last month, as potentially as big a problem as obesity. Here is a recent report in The Guardian.
