The Campaign to End Loneliness are currently undertaking a project that builds on our Hidden Citizens report that explored what was already known in both research and practice about how to identify loneliness in a local population.  The main recommendations from this work were for practical resources that can support commissioners and providers to be able to: understand what risk factors might place households or neighbourhoods; support services to better promote and communicate their activities to ensure they reach those most at risk or currently experiencing loneliness; and to enable frontline staff (from GPs to supermarket employees) to start a conversation about loneliness with older people they meet.

Our current Identification Project is developing ideas and ‘how to’ guidance, drawing on existing case studies to distil principles and practical advice for commissioners, service providers and front line workers.  We are keen to drawn on the best current practice, and to provide links and references to a wide range of existing projects and papers.

With that in mind, I would be very grateful if you could forward to me any suggestions for projects and papers that you think might be helpful for our project.  Ideally, please include weblinks for any suggestion, and if you think your suggestion is particularly relevant for one of our key audiences – commissioners, service providers, or front line workers – please do indicate that.

Please contact Learning and Research Manager Dr Kellie Payne at kellie@campaigntoendloneliness.org.uk