Research highlights the issue of festive anxiety…………
NEW research from Contact the Elderly, the national charity dedicated to tackling isolation and loneliness through face to face contact, has highlighted Christmas anxiety is a common festive issue with 78% of Brighton residents still without plans for Christmas Day.
Contact the Elderly commissioned the research, which also reveals that a quarter of us feel anxious and worry about making plans for the festive period, to highlight the impact of societal pressures on families over Christmas and the impact it can have on older people left to spend Christmas alone.
The charity released the festive research to coincide with the news that they’ve joined forces with Community Christmas, an organisation which aims to ensure no older person spends Christmas Day alone if they don’t want to.
The Community Christmas website lists events taking place across Brighton that are open to older, vulnerable people in the community who would otherwise be spending Christmas Day alone.
Twenty-two percent of those surveyed said that they would want to know about events taking place on Christmas Day across Brighton.
Any event, which creates the all-important connections that hold communities together, can be a Community Christmas event.
No two events are the same and they vary from community Christmas lunches to formal sit-down dinners in community centres like Befriended & Hope Community Christmas lunch in Hurstpierpoint and Hove Methodist Church.
Caroline Billington, founder of Community Christmas, said: “Community Christmas is growing organically with more and more events and activities being added to the site every day. I think it’s really important to emphasise that anyone can host an event; it doesn’t have to involve cooking a Christmas feast for 20 people. It could just mean arranging tea and Christmas cake at a local village hall, or singing Christmas carols in the pub. It’s anything that gets people together in the community who otherwise might be alone on Christmas Day.
“I can’t wait to see how it will change and evolve under the leadership of Contact the Elderly and create more community connections.”
Meryl Davies, Chief Executive of Contact the Elderly, added: “Everyone recognises that Christmas can be a difficult time of year, particularly for people who are isolated or vulnerable. Caroline made it her mission to ensure that anyone who doesn’t want to spend Christmas Day alone doesn’t have to. As an organisation, it is the perfect fit for Contact the Elderly, which has been fighting isolation and loneliness among older people for over 50 years through volunteer-led social gatherings.”
For more information on Contact the Elderly, click here:
For more information on Community Christmas activities, click here:
To upload your own event to the site, click here: