ISLANDERS of all demographics are struggling with loneliness, according to a group campaigning for quality of life.
The Island of Longevity is a “civic movement” seeking to promote policies that ensure a better quality of life for Jersey’s ageing population.
Members launched ‘A Holistic Framework for Jersey’ at an event on Thursday night.
Developed through the voices and ideas of hundreds of Islanders over the last 18 months, the framework aims to offer a starting point for shaping a society that supports health, purpose, connection and security across a 100-year life.
Dr Chris Edmond, who leads the health element of the Island of Longevity framework, said that in societies from around the world, “you see communities that are still connected”.
He was speaking at the launch of the framework, which was developed in discussion groups around six pillars, including wellbeing economy, health, personal finance and the workplace.
Dr Edmond spoke at the event, and in an interview with the JEP, about the struggle faced by Islanders who are seeking community.
There are “loads” of demographics to think about, he said.
“There’s various areas of the Island that struggle to integrate for completely different reasons,” added Dr Edmond.
“The elderly population is an obvious one, but you actually have finance workers who come here specifically for their jobs, who live in flats on their own, who do nothing but go to work and go home again.”
They work “very, very long hours”, he said.
The Island of Longevity group’s work on creating communities includes suggestions to invest in parish halls, parks and shared spaces, and encouraging multigenerational living.
Dr Edmond said: “It’s about creating those opportunities for everybody, and actually creating a society where a 90-year-old can meet with a 25-year-old and have a coffee and talk about what life used to be like and talk about what life is.”
Other suggested measures include incentivising healthy behaviours, focusing on preventative care, and promoting private pensions and savings alongside entrepreneurship.
Next, he said, the group was hoping to set up a not-for-profit organisation and raise funds.
Members had “deliberately kept it apolitical”, added Dr Edmond, “because it’s a civic movement”.
Speaking at the framework launch event, Island of Longevity founder Joe Dickinson said health and wellbeing were “a major part” of conversations around ageing – but that “there is a lot more to our lives than just that aspect”.
The group took “a holistic view” of quality of life, he added.
Kate Wright, the group’s lead on the topic of community, said the framework formed “a starting point for reimagining what this Island is for”.
She said she hoped the suggestions included could be tested in a roadmap and with a “learning commission” to be set up in the future.
