1. A lifeline of friendship
Contact the Elderly
A lifeline of friendship
Tackling loneliness and social isolation amongst older people, through regular face-to-face contact.
Hello, I am Chloe Smee, Regional Development Officer for Contact the Elderly in North, West & East Yorkshire. Contact the Elderly exists to….

2. Do we know what loneliness feels like?
I’m sure that many of you, in your day to day work, have encountered these kinds of stories. In isolation, they’re very sad. Collectively, the rate of loneliness amongst our oldest citizens is deeply concerning. Contact the Elderly exists to connect isolated older people to their community, and to give our older guests a monthly afternoon of tea and friendship – in a family setting - that they can really look forward to.

3. Loneliness: the facts
Over 2 million people over 75 live alone in the UK; 1.5 million of these are women (Age UK, 2014)
Two fifths all older people (about 3.9 million) say the television is their main company (Age UK, 2014)
Over two thirds of our older guests receive a visitor less than once a week. (Contact the Elderly, 2016)
It feels like not a day goes by without a news piece on the social blight that is loneliness and isolation among our rapidly ageing population.
A staggering 2 million people over 75 live alone and two fifths say the television is their main company. Over two thirds of our guests have said they receive a visitor once a week or less. Often the visitor is the milkman or the hairdresser, not a close intimate contact.
This is a story I hear time and again at our tea parties, as well as anecdotes about the impact of loneliness. Sheila, Pudsey – “As time goes by I feel that I have lost the art of conversation, and I feel my mind slipping without conversation.”
And this is supported by a growing body of evidence that demonstrates the physical and mental impact of loneliness: we know it adversely affects cardiovascular health; immune function; sleep; depression; dementia; premature death. The effect of loneliness can be compared to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and is a greater risk-factor to health than obesity.

4. Background
Contact the Elderly was set up to resolve a conundrum, posed by our founder Trevor Lyttleton in 1965: How can I reach out to isolated people in my community, and help others to do the same, in a way that is meaningful? The solution?
In the early 1960's, Trevor Lyttleton (born and raised in Leeds, now resident in Marylebone), met an older lady who lived near to him. She had no electricity in her house and was entirely alone: no family, no mobile friends, no known neighbours.
He discovered from the Welfare Department that she was one of many hundreds in the borough in a similar position.
Together with a few friends he decided to do something about it. They visited twelve older people whose names they had been given by the Marylebone Welfare Department and invited them to come to afternoon tea on the first Sunday in March 1965.
From this small start, Trevor decided to set up further groups and in September 1965 they were granted charitable status to enable them to raise funds to advertise for volunteers.
While the issue of social isolation and loneliness amongst our oldest citizens has grown exponentially, the gem of a model that Trevor developed in his London neighbourhood still sticks:
monthly tea parties for small groups of older people in the homes of volunteers.
We now have 655 groups across England, Scotland and Wales, with 42 in Yorkshire (the most recent launched in Pudsey last Sunday!)
Through these volunteer-led groups, the charity provides a regular, consistent and vital friendship link every month to almost 5,200 older people.

5. Our model
Simple yet effective concept: free monthly tea parties for older guests
Supported by a network of volunteers within local communities:
Group Coordinators who organise the individual groups, make sure the tea parties run
Hosts who open their homes to the groups once or twice a year
Drivers who commit to one Sunday a month or as a reserve driver when required.
The CTE model is based on a simple yet very effective concept: free monthly tea parties for older people, supported by a network of volunteers, within local communities.
We recruit volunteer drivers, hosts and Group Coordinators to help arrange the monthly parties for small groups of older people.
Once a month, each older guest is collected from their home by a volunteer driver, and is taken to a volunteer host’s home, where they join a small group for tea and companionship. The group is warmly welcomed by a different host each month, but our drivers and older guests stay the same. This ensures that over the months and years, acquaintances turn into friends and loneliness is replaced by companionship.

6. Who do we serve? Criteria: Over the age of 75
Live alone with little or no social contact
Often cannot get out by themselves without some assistance
Guests walk unaided, some use walking sticks/frames
Our service is aimed at older people who are over the age of 75. Almost half of those attending tea parties are in their 80s, while 20% are in 90s. (1% in 100s)
Many of the older people we help, live alone and have very little contact with family or friends. Over two-thirds (69%) of our older guests only receive visits, other than from a carer, just once a week or less, while almost half (44%)* don’t know their neighbours.
Our guests have to be able to walk unaided often they use walking sticks or frames and the most help we would expect a volunteer to give is a steady arm to lean on.

7. Why is our Model Effective?
Sunday - Small - Home-based
Can we help people feel less lonely?
Can we give people something to look forward to?
Can we help people to stay healthy and indepdendent?
Why is the CTE model so effective?
Our research has shown that Sunday afternoon is highlighted as a particularly lonely day of the week for older people living alone. We provide regular face to face contact when most community services do not operate.
Our groups are kept small (usually between 6-8 guests), with the same individuals meeting every month, which means the guests and volunteers make lasting friendships.
The unique feature about our charity is that we offer home hospitality – being welcomed into someone own home makes such a difference to our older guests’ sense of wellbeing. The hosts often have other family members or pets there and the drivers sometimes bring their children so we have a weave of different ages and intergenerational links for our guests.
Our independent research shows that after participating in our groups -80% of our guests feel less lonely and 96% have something to look forward.
Our model also helps address the emotional needs of older people who wish to remain in their own home, but whose diminished mobility makes it impossible for them to maintain regular social contact.
Our charity started 51 years ago and our model is still sustainable today. We have an extremely loyal network of 9,200 volunteers and 17% have been with the charity for over 10 years. Indeed, some of our hosts have been with us from the start.
We are also beginning to paint a picture of how our guests benefit beyond the group meetings. Once the relationships are formed, our volunteers will often pop in on guests between tea parties – Joyce Cottingham bus confidence story - Mary; nail painting – Beryl, Beverley.

8. How could you help? Refer one person to us this month.
Keep our details on file for when you encounter someone who is living in a state of chronic loneliness.
Recommend one volunteer to us this month – a realistic, sustainable volunteering commitment that fits around every lifestyle, but changes the lives of those it serves.
So how you can you help. I’m going to give you a realistic goal to ease you into the weekend: just refer one isolated older person to us. Just one! If everyone in the room did that, our staff would be reaching out to 40 lonely people over the UK in the next month.
If you also know anyone who would be interested in volunteering then we would love to welcome them to our team. You can direct people to our website and we will be in touch. I have also brought some cards and information with me, please help yourself or I’m very happy to have a chat with anyone after the talk.

9. Messages from our older guests
“When you knocked on my door five years ago, you changed my life. Contact the Elderly has given me something to live for and a feeling of belonging.”
Maud, 89
This is a quote from one of our older guests.
I wanted to play you a short clip that shows our tea parties and our GP practices group.

10. Contact the Elderly: alleviating loneliness
I’d like to show you this short film, which hopefully will work! And will give you an idea of the impact CTE groups have.

11. Thank you