Loneliness Awareness Week: the importance of writing letters
This week marks Loneliness Awareness Week, and many people will be feeling even more dependent on others during the lockdown restrictions.
Well the Minister for Loneliness Baroness Barran has now urged people to write letters and cards to those still isolating as lockdown measures ease.
She's encouraged people to make contact with friends, family, elderly neighbours or anyone else who is clinically vulnerable as the country emerges from the lockdown. This could also include pregnant women or people older than 70 with an underlying health condition.
And it's an issue that our presenters Matt and Bob spoke about when they caught up today:
The Government is also offering advice on how to reach out to lonely people under its #Let’sTalkLoneliness campaign.
The campaign’s name is featured on postmarks stamped on most letters delivered during Loneliness Awareness Week, as a result of a Government initiative with the Post Office and Royal Mail.
The Government has also announced the nine organisations helping people at risk from feeling alone that will share a £5 million fund to reduce loneliness.
The fund is part of the Chancellor’s recently announced £750 million support package for charities.
The bodies are the English Football League Trust, the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen And Families Association, Sense, the Alzheimer’s Society, the British Red Cross, Home-Start UK, the Royal National Institute of Blind People, Mind, and the Carers Trust.