Mr. Se?n Moynihan:

Loneliness is obviously a complex issue across all age groups. The reality is that it will require a range of psychosocial responses from health professionals, but also community groups, and also social activities, etc. We realise, from all the research, that this is an issue. In fairness to the HSE, the Department of Health and the relevant Ministers, people realise this is an issue that needs to be addressed.

We seem to get a little stuck there. We realise we have the evidence, but where do we go from there? For its part, ALONE recognises that the CMO recently came out with an open letter on loneliness and that this is a really positive move, as is the advertising, but it did not really discuss the language we need to destigmatise loneliness. For the older people who come to us for services around loneliness, imagine making that phone call and admitting that you are lonely. That is a really brave thing to do. As a result, a bit like what we have done with younger people's services, we really need to educate and work with older people and create the points at which they can reach out. A publicity campaign has been done to tell people to watch our for loneliness and to re-engage, but, really, we need a strategy and a plan that covers all age groups and reaches in further.