What can Wales do to address loneliness and isolation?

Figures from Age Cymru show that 75,000 older people in Wales feel lonely or isolated. Almost half of those surveyed said the television or a pet was their main companion.

The National Assembly’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee has begun an inquiry looking how this issue affects older people in Wales. It will look at what support is available for older people and what more can be done to tackle the issue. The Committee will also look at the extent to which initiatives to combat loneliness and isolation experienced by other groups may also help older people.

There is evidence to suggest that loneliness and isolation can have a significant impact on physical and mental health and may be a cause of depression, sleep issues, stress, and even heart problems.

It’s therefore possible that preventing loneliness and isolation could  reduce the demand and pressure on health and social care services.

Loneliness and isolation are not the same thing – each can be experienced without the other. A person may feel lonely in a crowded room, isolated in a rural community or even vice versa.

The problem of loneliness and isolation has already been recognised by the Minister for Social Services and Public Health as an important public health issue, while the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales has made tackling the problem a priority.

The Welsh Government already has a set of indicators to check its progress towards the achieving its ‘well-being goals’ one of which is to monitor the ‘percentage of people who are lonely’.

The Committee will be looking at this complex subject and the  wide range of services which can have an impact on it such as health, social care and community services, transport and even internet access.

Chair of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, Dai Lloyd AM:

“Isolation and loneliness can affect anyone,  employed or retired, living in a town, city or the countryside.

We already know the issues affect a high number of older people. Tackling the problem could  both help individuals feel better and could also  mean less demand on our health and social care services.

If you or someone you know is, or has been, affected by issues of loneliness or isolation, or you are involved in work to support them, then we would like to hear about your experiences and what ideas you think could help.”

If you would like to contribute to the inquiry you can find more information, including how, on the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee pages on the National Assembly’s website.

The Committee will be holding a Facebook Live session on 25/01 at 17.00 to talk more about the inquiry and invite people to take part.

You can also keep up to date with what the Committee are doing via their Twitter account – @SeneddHealth.

Employment opportunities for people over 50

Back in November 2014 the National Assembly for Wales’ Enterprise and Business Committee decided it would undertake an inquiry into employment opportunities for people over 50 in Wales.

It can be difficult for people who are over 50 to find a job, especially one which uses all their skills. The Committee decided to look into what can be done about this because people are living longer and pensions are getting smaller. The majority of people are working longer and by now it is not required for people to retire when they are 60 or 65 years old.

As well as asking outside organisations, academics and the public what they think by asking them to respond in writing the Committee also visited representative organisations to discuss the inquiry with them.

The Committee visited staff members from John Lewis in Cardiff, NIACE Cymru, Working Links, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Wales TUC and Pembrokeshire County Council on 12 February 2015. Discussions were held around barriers that people over 50 face when looking for a new job. Are there any stereotypes about the employment of people over 50, how can they can be tackled and whether there is anything the Welsh Government need to do to support and promote employment for people over 50.

Some of the barriers discussed during these visits were the lack of funding for training opportunities and the lack of things like IT skills. You can see read more about these discussions on the Committee’s webpage here.

Here, Rhun Ap Iorwerth AM tells us about his discussion with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board Human Resources staff.

As well as visiting representative organisations the Committee also spoke to individuals during their meetings at the Senedd, including the office of the older people’s commissioner for Wales and representatives from Age Cymru and Prime Cymru.

The Committee have published their report which includes recommendations on things the Committee thinks the Welsh Government should do to make it easier for people over 50 to find employment. One of the things the Committee have recommended that the Welsh Government do is to hold an ‘Age Positive’ campaign to encourage employers to employ people over 50. With the older people’s commissioner the Welsh Government should also have a campaign which will increase the number of work placements and apprenticeships for people over 50. The Committee also recommend that the Welsh Government should write a skills strategy for people over 50 which says how they will help those people get the skills they need to get a job.

You can see a copy of the full report or a summary report here and you can view press coverage from the report launch below by clicking on the images.

The Committee will be speaking to the Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology during the autumn term to ask what she will do about their recommendations.

For updates please follow @SeneddEcon.

National Assembly pledges to become a dementia-friendly organisation

What is dementia?

The word dementia describes a set of symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language. It is not a disease in its own right and it is not a natural part of ageing. Dementia is caused when the brain is damaged by diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease or a series of strokes. Dementia is progressive, which means the symptoms will gradually get worse.

Find out more about dementia by visiting the Alzheimer’s Society website or watching their short video ‘What is Dementia?’.

Dementia affects over 750,000 people in the UK and there are 45,000 people living with dementia in Wales.

What does the Assembly becoming a dementia-friendly organisation mean?

A dementia-friendly Assembly is committed to helping to raise awareness and understanding of dementia amongst Assembly Members, and the wider Assembly community.

“By extending its equality of access to people living with dementia, the National Assembly for Wales will be demonstrating that people with dementia are both welcome and able to participate in civic life,” said Sandy Mewies AM, the Assembly Commissioner with responsibility for equalities issues.

The Assembly will:

• Champion the rights of the 45,000 people living with dementia in Wales, and those who care for them.
• Ensure Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Friends information sessions are delivered to public facing staff so they are equipped to respond to external visitors living with dementia.
• Ensure staff who have caring responsibilities for people living with dementia are directed to support available through the Alzheimer’s Society.
• Provide Dementia Friends information sessions for Assembly Members, their staff, Assembly Commission staff, and contractors working on the estate so that they are equipped to assist constituents and people they come into contact with who are living with dementia. In fact, to date almost half of Assembly Members have already become Dementia Friends.

Sue Phelps, Director of Alzheimer’s Society in Wales said:

“We are delighted that the National Assembly for Wales has made this commitment. Their pledge supports Alzheimer’s Society’s drive to encourage communities, businesses and other organisations to work towards becoming more dementia-friendly and help to create better environments for people to live well with dementia for as long as possible. We need everyone to act now to make changes to empower people with dementia and help them live well in their communities.”

The Outreach team: Understanding and Engaging with the people of Wales

We’ve had a busy start to 2015 visiting groups across Wales delivering workshops about the National Assembly for Wales.

In January we attended a Community Event at Cardiff Story Museum which was organised by Cardiff Third Sector Council. We met with members of the public to inform them of the Assembly’s work and discussed different ways of engagement. We had a great day meeting new faces and telling people how they can have their views heard.

Age Connects North Wales Central arranged Understanding and Engaging sessions for their forums across North Wales at the beginning of the year. We visited forums in St Asaph, Rhyl, Rhuthun, Corwen, Prestatyn and Colwyn Bay. During the visit to Age Connects in Corwen, Antoinette Sandbach came long and spoke to the group about her role as an Assembly Member.

Speaking after the workshop, Antoinette Sandbach AM said: “It was great to have an opportunity to discuss the work that I do in the National Assembly. I thoroughly enjoyed engaging with such a lively, interested and well informed audience.”

On 3 February we spoke to the All Wales People First Council during their National Council Residential Meeting. We spoke to them about Assembly Members that represent them in their area, what the Assembly are currently discussing and how they can get involved. Following on from this presentation we recently provided a workshop to Powys People First which focused on the 20 devolved areas in Wales and how to submit a petition to the Assembly.

In February we worked with the UK Parliament Outreach team to deliver a session to a group of service users from Conwy Connect for Learning Disabilities in Colwyn Bay.

The aim of the session was to ensure that service users understand what the UK Parliament and Assembly do and who represents them in both.

Speaking after the session, Sue Davies, Conwy Connect Senior Co-ordinator said:

“We were delighted that the National Assembly Outreach Team and the Parliament Outreach Service partnered together to deliver a joint interactive and interesting workshop to our members which included people with learning disabilities, parent/carers and Voluntary organisations.  It was enjoyed by all – its not easy making politics interesting but they both did this through the use of photographs, videos and users friendly exercises.”

After a visit to Interlink RCT in February Rachel Wyatt said the following about our workshops:

“The ‘Understanding and Engaging’ workshop gave people an excellent overview of the work of the National Assembly for Wales, who their local representatives are, how they can contact them and some of the different ways that people can become involved in the work of the Assembly”.

Our aim is to connect the people of Wales with the work of the Assembly by discussing:

• Who represents you
• How decisions made in the Assembly affect Wales and its people
• How the Assembly hold the Welsh Government to account
• How you can get involved in decisions made by the Assembly

If you would like to arrange an Understanding and Engaging workshop for your group, or are simply interested in our work, please contact us via email: contact@assembly.wales or phone us on 0300 300 6565.

You can follow us on twitter @SeneddOutreach / @SeneddAllgym to keep updated on visits as well as to learn about the work we do on behalf of committees. You can also visit our pages on the Assembly website.