The Impact of Winter Pressures and the Cost of Living in Newcastle & Gateshead

News - 23 May 2023

Healthwatch Gateshead and Healthwatch Newcastle would like to understand:

- The impact of the cost of living on your physical, mental, and social health.
- Changes to your health and social care due to the cost of living.
- The impact of the cost of living on your interaction with health and social care services.

As part of a network of 152 Healthwatch, the Healthwatch Gateshead and Healthwatch Newcastle are independent champions for people who use the health and social care services in our area. Our teams provide community engagement, research, evaluation, and assessment services within the fields of health, wellbeing, and social care. We also provide training and skills development for their teams of volunteers and the wider community. Our work ensures that the views of local people are heard by service providers and result in positive changes that have a real impact for our community. 

Your feedback will be stored securely and will be shared anonymously. Our Privacy Notice is available here. 

We use your feedback to generate statistical information which we use to assess the current service provision. The information will be used by decision makers to plan future services.   

Survey link - https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/winterpressuresandcostofliving/

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The Impact of Winter Pressures and the Cost of Living 2022-2023

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Loneliness in the retirement-age population in Gateshead and Newcastle

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• Any factors people felt contributed to feelings of loneliness & isolation and its prevalence in people’s lives. 
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• What worked well and areas for development.

We collected data from the survey from January 2023 to April 2023, and circulated both a digital survey and a paper-based survey format.

The key findings are:

• Loneliness can occur to anyone, and in particularly felt by those aged between 65 and 74, are women, and are carers. 
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• There is interest in specific activities, like physical fitness and arts activities for some people within some communities.

Our key recommendations are:

• Support those leaving the workforce in adjusting to the changes that retirement brings.
• Work with communities to create community action plans to make sure local facilities are being utilised effectively and for the benefit of local communities.
• Improve service infrastructure to ensure maximum reach and accessibility
• Establish a focus group or engagement group to help services better understand how to reach older people.
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