ISOLATION AND MENTAL HEALTH, HOW CAN COMMUNITIES HELP?

Revd. Dr Alison J Gray, FRCPsychDr Olivia Bush MRCP

Dr Kit Byatt, FRCP

The Context

Revd. Dr Alison Gray FRCPsych

Consultant in Liaison Psychiatry2gether NHS Mental Health Trust

Types of loneliness

• Emotional loneliness• Social loneliness

Social Support cannot fully compensate

Why Loneliness ?

• Makes parents care for children• Homeostatic mechanism• Different set points• 50% genetic

Loneliness cycle

• Lonely people are sensitive to social threat• Expect to be rejected• Respond negatively• Act difficult• More lonely

Stress, support and physical symptoms

Chronic loneliness linked to…

• Lower self control• Obesity, poor diet, lack of exercise, • Worse physical health• Stroke, heart attack, cancer• Worse mental health• Dementias, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular

dementia, • Depression, anxiety, suicide

Biological effects

• Increased blood pressure• Stress hormones• Low immunity• Inflammation• Poor sleep

Loneliness cycle

• Lonely people are sensitive to social threat• Expect to be rejected• Respond negatively• Act difficult• More lonely

• Difficult to be with• People expectChallenging behaviour

BUT

Mental illness

Severe and enduring mental illness

Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Vincent Van Gogh, Virginia Woolf, Buzz Aldrin, Charles Dickens, Isaac Newton, Leo Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Mark Twain, Edgar Allen PoeBradley Wiggins, Ricky Hatton, Carlos Tevez, Frank Bruno, Mario Ballotelli, Stan Collymore, Serena Williams, Andy Cole, Neil Lennon, Paul Gascoigne, Clark Carlisle, Dean Windass, Andrew Flintoff, Tasha Danvers, Kelly Holmes, John Kirwan, Paul McGrath Kirsten Dunst, Carrie Fisher, Robin Williams, Steven Fry, Bill Oddie, Elton John, Janet Jackson, Kurt Cobain,MP’s John Prescott, David Blunkett, Charles Walker, Kevan Jones, Sarah Woolaston

•Mental illnesses are common•One in Four• Every family in the Land•No health without mental

health

Loneliness kills: 9 years follow up

The Evidence

Dr Olivia Bush MRCP

Specialist Registrar in Palliative CareSt Richard’s Hospice, Worcester

Action to reduce loneliness

• Immense number and variety of projects

• Recent study drawing evidence together

Focus of projects

Groups or 1-2-1

Focus of projects

Groups or 1-2-1 work:

a) Social skills

b) Social support

c) Social contact

a) ‘Loneliness cycle’

Focus of projects

Groups or 1-2-1 work:

a) Social skills

b) Social support

c) Social contact

a) ‘Loneliness cycle’

Focus of projects

Groups or 1-2-1 work:

a) Social skills

b) Social support

c) Social contact

d) ‘Loneliness cycle’

Focus of projects

Groups or 1-2-1 work:

a) Social skills

b) Social support

c) Social contact

a) ‘Loneliness cycle’

For whom?

For whom?

• different Age groups

For whom?

• different Age groups• Displaced

For whom?

• different Age groups• Displaced • Marginalised

For whom?

• different Age groups• Displaced • Marginalised• specific Role

For whom?

• different Age groups• Displaced • Marginalised• specific Role• Gender specific

For whom?

• different Age groups• Displaced • Marginalised• specific Role• Gender specific• Mental health

For whom?

• different Age groups• Displaced • Marginalised• specific Role• Gender specific• Mental health • Other diagnoses

What works best?

What works best?

• Targeting the ‘loneliness cycle’ most effective

What works best?

• Targeting the ‘loneliness cycle’ most effective

• Men benefit more than women

What works best?

• Targeting the ‘loneliness cycle’ most effective

• Men benefit more than women

• Is social support/interaction effective?

What works best?

What works best?

• Group education/ activity

• Target specific groups

• More than one approach

• Participant’s voice

Cattan et al 1998 & 2005

What works best?

• Group education/ activity

• Target specific groups

• More than one approach

• Participant’s voice

Cattan et al 1998 & 2005

What works best?

• Group education/ activity

• Target specific groups

• More than one approach

• Participant’s voice

Cattan et al 1998 & 2005

What works best?

• Group education/ activity

• Target specific groups

• More than one approach

• Participant’s voice

Cattan et al 1998 & 2005

Care interpreting research!

• Bias

• Applicable to real-life situation?

Key Messages

• Good practice to start with research evidence

• Don’t accept research findings at face value

Where next?

Dr Kit Byatt FRCP

Consultant in General and Geriatric MedicineWye Valley NHS Trust

Key points

‘…an individual may be lonely in a crowd or socially contented while alone.’

Masi et al. Personality and Social Psychology Review 15(3) 219–266

‘Because the number of friends or social interactions is not as predictive of loneliness as the quality of their relationships, increasing opportunities for social interaction and enhancing social support may address social isolation more than loneliness.’

Masi et al. Personality and Social Psychology Review 15(3) 219–266

‘In contrast, improving social skills and addressing maladaptive social cognition focus on quality of social interaction and therefore address loneliness more directly.’

Masi et al. Personality and Social Psychology Review 15(3) 219–266

• Users liked flexibility & adaptation of services• Interventions include:– Befriending– Mentoring– ‘Community Navigators’– Social group schemes

Masi et al. Personality and Social Psychology Review 15(3) 219–266

• Identifying target• Asking what people want• Evaluating impact• Governance structure

Masi et al. Personality and Social Psychology Review 15(3) 219–266

‘If schemes to target loneliness in older people are to be effective, they must involve older people at every stage, including planning, development, delivery and assessment.’

Masi et al. Personality and Social Psychology Review 15(3) 219–266

NHS Five Year Forward View

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/futurenhs/

‘New Models of Care’

We need to:

•Manage systems – care networks – not organisations

•Make out-of-hospital care much larger part of NHS’ role

•Integrate services around the patient

•Learn much faster from best examples (UK & outside)

•Evaluate new care models

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/futurenhs/ p16

Engaging communities

• Commit to giving patients more control of their own care, including the option of combining health and social care, and new support for carers and volunteers.

• Action needed to develop and deliver the new models of care, local flexibility and more investment in our workforce, technology and innovation.

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/futurenhs/ p3

One size fits all?

‘to identify the characteristics of similar health communities across England, and then jointly work with them to consider which of the new options… constitute viable ways forward for their local health and care services.’

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/futurenhs/ p18

Multispecialty Community Providers

‘These new models would also draw on the ‘renewable energy’ of carers, volunteers and patients themselves, accessing hard-to-reach groups and taking new approaches to changing health behaviours.’

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/futurenhs/ p19

How will we support these new care models?

‘We will therefore now work with local communities and leaders to identify what changes are needed in how national and local organisations best work together, and will jointly develop:’

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/futurenhs/ p25

‘Detailed prototyping of each of the new care models described above, together with any others that may be proposed that offer the potential to deliver the necessary transformation - in each case identifying current exemplars, potential benefits, risks and transition costs.’

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/futurenhs/ p25

How will we support these new care models?

‘A shared method of assessing the characteristics of each health economy, to help inform local choice of preferred models, promote peer learning with similar areas, and allow joint intervention in health economies that are furthest from where they need to be.’

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/futurenhs/ p25

How will we support these new care models?

Whatever we do…

…must be:

•Planned – with users

•Integrated with current systems

•Properly implemented

•Evaluated re outcomes

•Within a governance framework