Last year I conducted social research with a group of 57 people through 5 focus groups and 6 interviews and learned about – what loneliness and social isolation is, how it affects people, what causes it and what can be done at an individual, societal and governmental level to tackle it. The focus of … [Read more...] about Kiren’s Blog: Understanding Loneliness and Social Isolation in Scotland

Sarah Van Putten, Chief Executive of Befriending Networks, prepared this useful briefing for the Cross Party Group on Volunteering''s meeting in January and has kindly permitted VHS to reproduce it. She points out it is not an attempt to summarise the whole loneliness and isolation strategy but … [Read more...] about Sarah’s briefing: Volunteering and A Connected Scotland

VHS welcome the newly published Scottish Government Strategy, A Connected Scotland which aims to tackle loneliness and social isolation in Scotland. This strategy will run from 2018 to 2026 and the Scottish Government will report biennially on its progress. We are heartened by the strategy’s 4 … [Read more...] about Launch: A Connected Scotland

Scottish Government Minister Joe Fitzpatrick MSP addressed our evening reception in the Scottish Parliament Garden Lobby on 11th December, held to celebrate the work of the Cross Party Group on Health Inequalities. Mr Fitzpatrick  happily agreed to VHS publishing the presentation he gave, so please … [Read more...] about Minister for Public Health, Sport & Wellbeing addresses the Health Inequalities CPG

Earlier this year VHS conducted an exercise in listening. We tried to explore the lived experience of loneliness and social isolation in Scotland and this exercise culminated in The Zubairi Report. The process aimed to give a voice to people who have been less visible and less heard in the debate on … [Read more...] about Loneliness and social isolation: an inequalities issue