We believe that death and dying are social issues as well as a medical issue.
Sadly, many people impacted by advanced illness and frailty report feeling lonely and socially isolated. Loneliness and social isolation negatively affects a person’s mental, emotional and physical health. The damage to health is widely accepted to be equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
The reality is that people living with advanced illness and frailty experience a ‘social death’ long before their physical death. Social isolation also affects their caregivers and those people living with bereavement .