Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
[image alt="ALONE" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/11/alone-14-296x197.jpg" width="296" height="197" credit-source="Jason%20Clarke" caption="Alone's%20Christmas%20campaign%20launch%20with%20Vincent%20Browne%20" class="alignnone" /end]
“IT’S LONELY AROUND Christmas time. One is made more aware of living on one’s own.”
Donald, an ex-journalist, once lived a very social and active life alongside his wife. However, when she passed away in 2008 Donald found himself living alone in solitude – joining the thousands of other older people across the country who are living alone.
In Ireland, one-third of people over the age of 65 live alone, rising to 60% for those over the age of 80. A striking one in 10 older people suffer from chronic loneliness.
As the years went by without his wife, Donald began to suffer from loneliness and longed for company.
“I was a very social person. When my wife died 10 years ago, I discovered that I didn’t have any close friends because were were a partnership and we were our own closest friends,” Donald told TheJournal.ie.
“You can’t replace that very easily. I have one son that lives in London and while it’s ok having Skype, it’s not the same as having an intelligent conversation face to face.”
Donald made the decision to seek out support. He contacted Alone, the charity that supports older people to age at home.
Alone works with those who have issues with loneliness, social isolation, lack of services, poor health, poverty and homelessness. It offers a befriending service, where older people living alone are paired up with a volunteer who provides regular home visits.
So far, Donald has had three home visits from an Alone volunteer. He’s always noticing a positive change in his life.
“It has made a great difference. No matter how you get by on a day to day basis, talking to people and dealing with what has to be dealt with, it’s not the same as sitting down for a chat about common interests and the world in general,” Donald said.
Spending Christmas alone
This Christmas will be Donald’s first with the support of Alone. Until now, he said that Christmas has been a particularly lonely period every year. Although he lives in a residential area of bungalows for older people, Donald said his neighbours aren’t particularly interested in socialising, even at Christmas.
It’s slightly lonelier around Christmas time. One is made more aware of living on one’s own.
Annette, a 68-year-old woman also from Ranelagh, has lived alone for years. She never married and has no children.
She, too, turned to Alone for support when she began to feel loneliness seep into her life. Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Annette had nothing but praise for the service and the positivity it has brought into her life.
“My health and everything has improved a thousand out of a thousand since I contacted Alone,” Annette said.
Annette meets up with her volunteer once a week. They go for walks or to a coffee shop for a chat. Annette’s volunteer has brought more than just company into her life, but friendship too.
“She’s a friend, she’s a very good friend. If I wanted to go anywhere locally or further away she would come with me,” Annette said.
“She’s a very nice woman and she’s full of emotion. The first time she came to me… When I opened the door she flung her arms around me and asked me how I was. I was really astonished by it but it was a really lovely gesture.”
Both Donald and Annette had a mutual word of advice to older people living alone, who lack a support system – don’t be afraid and take the first step to ask for help.
Donald told TheJournal.ie that older people have nothing to lose by getting in contact with Alone.
“If they want to have a sensitive person calling for a chat about whatever they want to talk about, I would encourage them to have a go and try it out,” Donald said.
They have nothing to lose. They have everything to gain. Some good friendships can be born by mixing with people from Alone.
Similarly, Annette told TheJournal.ie that there is no need for older people to be nervous about contacting Alone. She said: “The minute you call there’s a nice pleasant voice answering the phone and they’ll be out to you within a few days. I would advise anyone to do that.”
Christmas campaign
Annette and Donald spoke to TheJournal.ie at the launch of Alone’s Christmas campaign – ‘No one should be alone this Christmas’ – which is asking people to support the charity’s work by volunteering and donating.
Christmas is a particularly important time for Alone, as loneliness is heightened for those living alone during the holidays.
The charity runs a number of activities throughout the Christmas period, including a dinner dance for older people and volunteers, the delivery of hundreds of Christmas hampers to older people in need and a Christmas Day dinner delivery for a number of older people.
Sean Moynihan, CEO of Alone said: “We want older people to know that they have a right to be supported, to receive the support they need and to live in a place of their own choosing.
We will all be old one day and deserve to have supports and services in place to help us age well at home.
For those who have concerns about their own wellbeing, or the wellbeing of an older person in their community, Alone can be contacted on 01 679 1032.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
To the people who said no….please explain why I can’t come home from a tough day at work and smoke a joint while it’s ok for you to devour a bottle of wine and then post about it on Facebook?
@Soccer T’s: People drink alcohol excessively, laugh about its effects, boast about how much they can drink, look at non drinkers with amazement yet it’s illegal for me to smoke a joint. Before anyone comments on the health effects check out this list.
https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2009/nov/02/david-nutt-dangerous-drug-list
@Soccer T’s: from experience I’d say a lot of people don’t understand that decriminalisation =/= legalisation. I’ve broached the subject of decriminalisation with people before only to get shouted down because they thought i was proposing legalising every drug.
@Soccer T’s: Seen that report before. 310 people per day die in the UK from alcohol and smoking.
Smoking cigarettes doesn’t make people jump off rooftops thinking they can fly.
@Soccer T’s: i didnt vote in this poll because i didnt see it but i think it was very vague. It doesnt state which drug. Also if cannabis is illegal while personal use might be ok yhe purchase of the drug is still feeding into someones misery. I think cannabis should be legalised so it can be controlled and more than likely taxed. Its no more harmful than tobacco or alcohol.
@Jack Cassady: Neither does smoking a joint. The worst that’ll do is lead you to the fridge or to the bed.
@Jack Cassady: cannabis doesn’t either! But I’ve seen people getting into drunken brawls with each other fighting with gards smashing property, vomiting on the street, getting into cars and killing other road users.
@Soccer T’s: It has mind altering implications that can lead to pychosis/paranoia. Yes alcohol can do this too but at a much lower level. If i were to drink 75% absinthe every night then id be in the same danger bracket someone who smoked joints every night. It’s 1 thing to have a bottle of wine Weds and another Sat than comparing that to smoking joints every day. If you know someone that is drinking a bottle of wine every night & posting it on FB then be a friend and step in to see why they are drinking every night. The same way that anyone that knows you should step in and see why you need mind altering drugs that can lead you to psychosis/paranoia in long term (a lot faster than alcohol and far more health implications). I hope you & your facebook friends find the help that you need!
@Jack Cassady: bahahahaha this started my day off. Thanks for the lols
@Liam Mc Loughlin: The people who vote no do not understand, they’re an (understandable) throwback of decades of drugs are bad full stop rhetoric which has been less than useless, and an approach which creates far more problems than it solves
@Jack Cassady: There was an epidemic of hash smokers in Tralee the early part of this decade who used to jump off roofs thinking they were gannets. Durty eejits. Twas the hash that made them think they were all avian like.
@Jack Cassady: neither does smoking weed
@Eugene Tyson: can u explain why cannabis pychosis only really occurs in Ireland and the UK?
@willypearson: because it doesn’t only occur in Ireland and the uk. Look it up.
@Eugene Tyson: why in places where it’s legal are the cases a lot rarer
@Jack Cassady: haha go on tell us some other stuff you believe
@willypearson: why do ineed to prove it to you? I know it’s true and you can research it for yourself.
@Eugene Tyson: hahaha cannabis psychosis aka schizophrenia . In the Uk and Ireland the use of cannabis has increased by at least 30% over the last 40 years but yet the rates of Schizophrenia have more or less stayed the same . If there was a connection between cannabis use and schizophrenia then they should have both increased. Better education and screening procedure to determine people who are predisposed to schizophrenia so they at least know what the could be getting themselves into. As cannabis does not cause schizophrenia but if you are someone who was going to develop it anyway then it could possibly cause it to develop it sooner . That is the only link cannabis could have to schizophrenia .
Jack Cassady, nor does smoking cannabis. What’s your point or did you just feel an overwhelming need to say something, anything, however stupid and irrelevant it may sound? Step away from the whiskey sir.
@Eugene Tyson: typical ignorant irish response, tell that to your liver
@Eugene Tyson: I’ve been smoking it for 20 years and I don’t have psychosis. It’s kinda like peanuts it’s not for everyone but it doesn’t necessarily cause psychosis the same as nuts doesn’t kill everyone that eats them or the same as drinking alcohol doesn’t turn you into a wife beater. You are generalising.
@Jack Cassady: if you know anyone who thinks that they can fly after smoking something it’s important that you tell them to take off from the ground! Less mess
@Eugene Tyson: the parralel you attempted to draw between daily consumption of weed and absinthe is just ridiculous. The credibility of your whole argument is blown; I’m filing your comment with Jack Cassady’s in the “Ramblings of Mentallers” box (figuratively speaking of course, there is no actual box)..
@Soccer T’s: ban alcohol that makes it fair right?
@Jack Cassady – Drink makes people beat their wives, destroys families, drink drivers and victims, and aggression and violence in the streets in mass numbers. Your case study of one hypothetical person, taking some hypothetical drug and being off their mind is unfounded and part of a routinisation of character of drugs and their users that has been spread through anti-drug campaigns of fear. You are uninformed about the science of drugs and your argument is based upon irrational fear and prejudice.
@Pa Cantillon: that stuff that made people jump off roofs was no cannabis it was headshop gear that was chemically synthesized in order to by pass our laws your ignorance is telling real cannabis doesn’t Make you run around the place its quite the opposite it makes a person relaxed but hay what ever you want to believe pa you must be part of the fg tribe always looking out for their big pharma buddies.
Decriminalise drug users and legalise cannabis. It would be great if we could take the initiative and not slavishly follow other countries’ positions. The work has been done, Portugal has shown that this approach works, and it is patently obvious to anyone that the ‘war on drugs’ was lost a long time ago.
@Noirin Kavanagh: ah in fairness the guards found a kilo or two of grass last week that’ll put a serious dent in the war on drugs
Actually it was officially 10,365,000 metric tonnes of it and the Boat Club are remodelling the bar and willing to sell a kilo out the back to the first scobe shows up with five grand cash unmarked bills only.
Nothing wrong with a good 5 skinner just before mass.
@Labor Camp: be a good way for the church to boost the numbers attending mass. I’m Jesus would have a had an ole spilff if it was available to him
@Donnchadh Cassin: Sure didn’t the Lord himself, pause for a big fat spliff, before givin’ himself up for the world.
Let people make their own choice.Alcohol causes more harm worldwide and has ruined many a generation of family just go out to any A&E this weekend and you’ll see the damage it does
Good point Jamie so why on earth would you make more products avaiible to make things worse
@Declan Gartlan: You reckon they’re not available now?
@Jamie: not at all at all says Johnny Healy Rae!
@Jamie: true but is that a reason to legalise drugs?? You not think mental health problems are bad enough
@Declan Gartlan: Sorry pal but these things are already available, it’s the way that they are distributed that causes these kind of conversations….
@free Palestine: And keeping the status quo with drugs illegal and continuing the farcical ‘war on drugs’ is helping mental health probles
@Dave Harris: helping mental health problems how???
@Declan Gartlan: This stance is unfounded. Look at the past 14 years in Portugal. Decriminalized. Slight increase in “drug use” in the form of cannabis. If you are caught in possession it is treated as a health issue rather than criminal. Drug ABUSE has went substantially down. The overdose rate in Portugal is around 3.3 out of 1,000,000 of the populace, when compared to 44.3 out of 1,000,000 in the England its a striking difference. Drug dealers have moved to neighboring Spain and Italy as prohibition makes it much more profitable for them. Your opinion is based upon prejudice and stigma rather than science and statistical evidence.
@Declan Gartlan: because, if you look at profressor Davids Nutts scale of harm chart, weed, ecstasy, magic mushrooms cause far less harm than alcohol. Furthermore, the war on drugs is just an absolute failure (see Neil woods, Good cop Bad war for a personal account of it). It’s never made on dent on demand, and its effect on supply has been minimal, and the increasingly violent drug dealers at the top (also an effect of the drug war) make billions which fund all other types of crime. In Portugal (I urge people to familiarise themselves which the data), legalisation actually cause the number of heroin users to fall, as well as local crime and prostitution. Addicts no longer need to commit crime to get a hit – fund the illegal crime market, they are taking stuff that is safter and of a consistent potency, and will be getting from places where this also access to support and help instead of being criminalised. I could go on and on – the facts really do speak for themselves
@Declan Gartlan: @Declan Gartlan: because, if you look at professor Davids Nutt’s scale of harm chart, weed, ecstasy, magic mushrooms etc. cause far less harm than alcohol. Furthermore, the war on drugs is just an absolute failure (see Neil woods, Good cop Bad war for a personal account of this). It’s never made a dent on demand, and its effect on supply has been minimal, and the increasingly violent drug dealers at the top (also an effect of the drug war) make billions which fund all other types of crime. In Portugal (I urge people to familiarise themselves with this data), the number of heroin users has actually fallen, as well as local crime and prostitution. Addicts no longer need to commit crime to fund their habit – they no longer fund the illegal crime market, they are taking stuff that is safer and of a consistent potency, and will be getting it from known places where this also access to support and help instead of being criminalised. I could go on and on – the facts really do speak for themselves
Some are already decriminalised. One, in fact, gets put in the hand of just about every visiting dignitary for a photo op.
It’s time we matured as a society in relation to drugs for recreational use. The war was lost in the 1970s. Legalise, regulate and tax, just like the legal drugs consumed now. But, no, we will have most of our legislators pontificate and wag their fingers in parliament on the issue, then shuffle into the Dail bar to enjoy their own drug of choice, alcohol.
Heavily subsidised for those who actually do pay their tabs.
If you’re not selling them, or giving them to kids, crack on.
@David: someone’s got to sell it. Not sure why that should be an issue.
@Barry Davidson: Grow your own, alongside your carrots.
@Barry Davidson: if the government had any brains they’d legalise it and regulated it. End a huge chunk of criminal enterprise in one swoop.
This seems the sensible way to go. Banning or making things illegal is always the go to response even if it’s never going to work ( like banning smart phones for under 14s , another totally unworkable law being drafted ) . Personal use seems fine to me. First though legalise cannabis. The amount of resources spent on prosecuting people for this is ridiculous.
Prescription drugs are probably more widely abused. The mentality that because they are not illegal, then its ok. Also alcohol creates more problems that cannabis. Cannabis isn’t perfect either, but doesn’t create the same social problems as alcohol. I say this as a drinker and an ex cannabis smoker.
Who are we to tell people of the public what they can and can’t do In the privacy of their own home.
The government gets to involved with personal decisions like this.
It’s none of anybodies business to tell me if I can or can’t smoke a joint in my home……IT’S MY HOME
Saying that there is no problem with a bit of regulation, like you can’t take drugs under age or if your driving, which would help others not just you.
The vintners association will have too much clout on this issue. It won’t happen.
Why not? If people want to take them then it’s their choice. Plenty of people already take them anyway, they might as well be legal.
Maybe start with for medical use
@Robot: you’ve clearly never walked through an electric picnic campsite…
@Robot: why?
Yes. Yes they should. If the government were able to regulate drugs there would far less drug related deaths. Why can’t I come home and have a spliff or a yoke if the mood takes me. I’m allowed a bottle or a cigarette.
I find the anti cannabis sentiment by individuals on here quite amusing.
Cannabis is with out a shadow of a doubt the most enlightening, theurapeutic and beneficial plant a human being can consume.
The real plight is that neysayers are so conditioned by negative forces that they’ve never had the pleasure of what it’s like to enjoy some quality erb.
you truly are missing out
In Portugal decriminalisation means users found in possession are steered into the health service. Here they are steered into the choked-up courts, the few cops we have are forced to spend days standing around waiting to give evidence, arbitrary tariffs are imposed based on subjective data such as weights which incorporate perhaps stones stems roots leaves earth and water, none of which are drugs, applied to bases of valuation that are also fictitious, being as they are generally about twice the actual street value, as googling can verify, and the user is then cast into a university of crime and their future life prospects curtailed.
As they say, if the Dutch owned Ireland they’d feed the world. If the Irish owned Holland they’d all drown.
If FG can get a tax intake suitable , the country will be stoned day and night. Look at all they done for vintners. ..
Decriminalise is not the same as making it legal, the illegal supply chair would continue to exist and the peer or pusher pressures that currently exist would only be increased with the statement that “after all it is not illegal” (even if it s just decriminalised).
If the issue is to be tackled properly then a proper supply chain from source to sale would need to be introduced, in the same was as it is for tobacco and alcohol (and other non drug related products), with whatever restrictions society feels should be in place. An interesting thought would be that people could grow cannabis in the same was as they can use home brew kits.
I do appreciate that many drugs are more dangerous then cannabis and that some of the “harder” drugs cause addiction and social and medical issues but we have this problem with alcohol already and this has to be dealt in a proper manner. People with any addiction need support (and sometimes intervention) to kick the habit and the amount of support varies quite a lot and making someone a criminal because of an addiction is a considerable failing of society, but also excusing them because of an addiction is wrong too.
One could write pages on the various options – but it is hypocritical to allow tobacco and alcohol sales and ban the sale of cannabis.
People under the influence of drugs can’t make rational decisions that’s why stoners should not be allowed a vote on the issue which means the 46% would be reduced to 2%.
@Jack Cassady: Trolling way too hard!
@Jack Cassady: says Jack on his 7th pint of the evening
@Jack Cassady: and piss heads make really good decisions hahaha
More nonsense in a third world country. Fact: Many people have to claim ‘disability allowance‛money because of illnesses caused by them using cannabis so cough up extra tax for this bill. Cannabis is the drug most likely to be tried out by young people under the age of 18 and so it should be made a more serious offence to possess it. Young People can develop psychotic and other mental illnesses because of using cannabis and are more likely to try harder drugs as it will be seen to be endorsed when it is legal. ‘Skunk‛ is a much more powerful form of cannabis and it has become much more common in the last few years. There are enough stoned people on drugs from the Irish Pharmecutical cartel without adding another strata of zombies behind the wheel of cars trucks etc. Of course people who are suffering from terrible painful medical conditions on the other hand should have full access once its approved by their Doctor that is beyond question.
@John Dillon: Putting “fact” before a statement does not make it so.
@Richard Sweeney: Well just point out which of the above statement’s are pure conjecture Richard? Elaborate please beacause i’m can see through your smoking rebuttal
@John Dillon: alcohol is the drug most likely to be tried by under 18s in this country so first off get your story straight. Also booze is a gateway drug. IV never in my life seen someone have a joint and decide they want a bag of coke etc, but I see plenty of gargled heads full of class a drugs every weekend in town
@John Dillon: The gateway argument has been debunked long ago – Fact. The first drug tried by the majority of teenagers is alcohol – Fact. You need to return to the 1930s and bring your ‘Reefer Madness’ lies with you. It’s just not working out for you here.
@John Dillon: Your post is riddled with nonsense, how will me having cannabis for personal use affect a young person? Also, if you are going to be using the gateway fallacy then you should start with alcohol. Do you not think that cannabis should be available to all, who may benefit from it’s medicinal benefits & not just those with “terrible painful medical conditions” (I think you are confusing cannabis with morphine).
@willypearson: Well Willy just because people abuse alcohol which we all agree on and A and E can’t cope with the fall out.Just because you think that cannabis is not a gateway drug nobody started on Smack from their pusher man. Cocaine use is off the scale in Ireland amongst teens. Remember all these drugs were legal one time even heroin was available in cough mixtures in the early 1900 in good old USA. I think i have a good grasp of reality unfortunately.
@John Dillion
Do you not think people are less likely to be offered heroin or coke if they were able to buy cannabis in a regulated licenced facility than if they buy of a street dealer as is the current situation?
And just because lots of people who go on to take harddrugs try cannabis first, does not mean the cannabis caused it. It means that adventerous/curious prople try all sorts of drugs.
If anything the type of fearmongering about cannabis is so far from the truth that when people try it they realise it is relatively harmless which makes them question what they have been told about other drugs.
Which is largely the type of nonsense you are spouting.
@John Dillon: The world is flat, FACT. Saying fact don’t make it so.
@Mike Power: Try to read history of drug use by big companies in America.All the above was tried and went out of control. The world is a sphere try and as Einstein said “Genius is limited but ignorance is limitless” fact.
@John Dillon: no John, you don’t..
Drugs should be legal as long as you have a job and pay your taxes
I personally think that the government should take it’s head out of it’s ARSE and actually genuinely talk, think, and listen to what the people want.! They want to feel different as apposed to the feeling of sobriety. Everybody is different & so is their opinion to everybodys daily life & so on.. here’s an example: a hard drug user runs out of their drug of choice, they then go to their GP, & they write a prescription for methadone & valium & sleeping pills, problem sorted for that user, I, on the other hand, run out of alcohol and tobacco, what do I do.?.. I Go to my GP & ask him/her for a voucher for, we say TESCO’s to stock up on beer and tobacco on a monthly basis, he’d have a shite haemorrage laughing at me.
I for one, think that that it ridiculously unfair.
Valium and the diazapams are incredibly dangerous drugs. Virtually the only ones in the pharmacopoeia the Chinese over meant doesn’t allow free sale of in the Number One Pharmacy on Nanjing road. One of the few classes of drugs that can kill you even in withdrawal. Yet they’re handed out like sweets here. Mad Ted.
From reading this article there seems to be a lot of people on here who take drugs.
It really doesn’t surprise me when you see some of the contributions.
Big difference it seems between the stronger types of weed available now than in the past so it’s probably incorrect to say that it is harmless, in the same way you’d differentiate between somebody drinking spirits all the time as opposed to beer.
I can get decent hashish here for as little as 4€ a gram but a lot of people don’t find it strong enough or the fact that if you smoke to much, it kind of cancels itself out and leaves you with a dull head.
On top of that it seems to be everywhere. My ‘petit magasin maghrebin’ deals quite openly so I find it hard to see how the state will go about wresting control of the market. And that’s perhaps why they leave the status quo alone.
@Neil Mcdonough: Currently, people can only get what their supplier offers. The highest demand is for potent flowers, so that’s what’s being supplied. But there’s also the option of simply putting less Cannabis in your joint…
If there was a free market, sellers could offer a wider range of selections like they do in legal countries. Budtenders can guide you towards a variety that suits you better or a method of consumption that is more favorable.
There will always be another more powerful drug to replace the legalised ones to keep the dealers in business. The cycle will always continue as long as people want chemical stimulation.
@Eileen Nolan: False: Portugal is one of the few places not to have a “legal-high” epidemic. Why would someone take some crap that might harm them when you can grow something that has been tested by humans for millennia.
Still haven’t heard anything intelligence argument to legalise drugs. Any wonder when you look at the idiots involved in cista
@free Palestine: When the president of Uruguay totally legalised cannabis he stated: it’s not the drug that we should be scared of, it’s the drug dealers. Seems like good logic to me
If they legalise cannabis I’m gong into the Ten Penny bag business.
Not a word about the real drug problem, now…the ‘official’ and ‘prescribed’ drugs are the good ones, ok?
have your say