Loneliness Among Older People

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:07 pm on 30 September 2020.

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Photo of Angela Burns Angela Burns Conservative 3:07, 30 September 2020

Deputy Minister, they say that often the loneliest place to be is in a crowd and you will know of the older people's commissioner's report that was issued earlier on care homes and loneliness, isolation, the whole blanket bans that we're having on care homes and how difficult it is with all the lockdowns. Before we go back down that road again, how can the Welsh Government ensure that this time around we can be far more compassionate and more targeted with how we treat each of the individuals that are involved in this scenario? Because we may have people in care homes, but there are an awful lot there who simply find it incredibly difficult to engage with the staff, incredibly difficult to engage with fellow care home residents—people who have got faculties, who do understand what is going on, it's that their bodies are not strong; their minds are absolutely fine. I've had distressing tale after distressing tale told to me of people who just felt so abandoned during the last lockdown and the blanket ban saying, 'You can't see the people you love, that's the end of the discussion', when they were locked up, or felt they were locked up, in their rooms on their own, with very little social contact with anyone.