Celebrate Silver Sunday with elderly friends and neighbours

Residents in Newtown are being encouraged to celebrate the older generations in the town on Silver Sunday next month (October 6, 2019) in a bid to combat loneliness.

Abacare, a care agency based in Newtown, said it was important for elderly people to feel valued all year round and is asking people to spend more quality time with older friends, family or neighbours.

Jane Jones, Branch Manager at Abacare’s Newtown office, said: “At significant times of the year, such as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, Easter and Christmas, we urge people to consider spending more time with their loved-ones, but we need to be ensuring older people feel valued all year round, so Silver Sunday is the perfect opportunity for anyone out there who might not have seen their elderly family members, friends or neighbours in a little while, to get up and make the effort to spend some quality time with them.

“It could be a small gesture of popping in to say ‘hello’ and stopping for a cup of tea, or you could plan a day out, perhaps to a National Trust site or local park for a walk or picnic. If there are community groups in the area, you could attend one or gather up a loved-one and any elderly neighbours for a get together and a natter.

“We’ll be popping a helpful blog post on our new website www.abacare.org.uk with lots of ideas of things that people can do with their elderly friends, family and neighbours on the day and encouraging our Facebook followers to share their pictures of what they get up to on the day.”

Silver Sunday was launched in 2012 by The Sir Simon Milton Foundation and Westminster City Councillor Christabel Flight, after a report discovered more than a third of people over 75 said they were lonely.

The aim then was to celebrate older residents, recognise their contribution to their communities and help them get out and about to meet new people.

In 2012 more than 2,000 people took part in 19 events in Westminster alone. The scheme has grown each year since and in 2018, there were more than 1,000 events attended by around 50,000 older people as varied as walking football, art classes, tea parties, dances, tai chi, boat rides and cultural experiences.

Now the aim is to create a day in the nation’s hearts where older people feel valued and are given new opportunities to get out of the house, keep their minds and bodies active, learn new skills, make new friends and connect with the communities and generations around them.

The number of people aged 50 plus experiencing loneliness is set to reach two million by 2025/26 according to the Campaign to End Loneliness. There are currently 1.2 million chronically lonely older people in the UK.

The recent National Survey for Wales showed that 17% of people in Wales were lonely and 54% of people experienced some feelings of loneliness.

Jane added: “Loneliness is currently an epidemic across England and Wales, so we need to make sure we are doing all we can for anyone we know that might live alone and not see or speak to family for long periods of time. Days like Silver Sunday can really help, and we can guarantee that whatever you do with an older person, will really brighten up their day.”

Photo: Jonae Jones of Abacare