Covid: Simple acts of kindness can help tackle one of the virus's 'four harms': profound loneliness – Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP

Social distancing has prevented it this year unfortunately, but we’d factor a stop with her into our morning routine every day. She’s quite legendary.

One year around this time, shortly after she lost her husband, we asked her what plans she had for Christmas – she didn’t have any, so we invited her to have Christmas dinner with us.

She had us in stiches from courgette soup to brandy butter. What a difference she made to our day! Once it got around that she was open to offers, there was a clamour for her to join other families at their Christmas tables across the neighbourhood thereafter. Sadly, this story isn’t typical and many will face another Christmas alone this year.

Scale of problem is staggering

The 19th-century French writer Balzac said: “Solitude is fine, but you need someone there to tell you that it’s fine.”

Loneliness can be devastating. Long-term, it can have as grave an impact for your health as smoking or obesity. But lockdown and the restrictions surrounding the emergency have only added to the problem.

A report published by the Red Cross last month sets out the scale of the problem and it is staggering. Some 39 per cent of UK adults had not had a meaningful conversation with someone in a fortnight and a third worried that if something happened to them no one would notice.

Two in five people said loneliness was having a negative impact on their mental health. That’s just heartbreaking. It’s important to remember that a good number of these people will have been in shielding during the summer as well. Small wonder then that the report also concluded that people in that group felt “left behind” as they watched others resume their social lives as lockdown eased.

Mental health pandemic

This is why campaigns like the new ‘Christmas Together’ initiative are so important. It’s a campaign backed by leading charities and a range of celebrities from across the UK to encourage us all to reach out and make contact with someone who we know will likely be alone this year in a Covid-secure way. That might be to invite them for a walk in the park, a coffee at the end of their drive or a simple phone call and a chat.

Chest Heart and Stroke, who are part of the coalition of charities involved are taking things further with a Kindness Call initiative, where they are paring people spending Christmas on their own with those who are willing just to give them a call or go for a walk with them. You can find out more at their website: www.chss.org.uk

Ministers and public health officials often talk about the four Covid harms: these are the virus itself, its impact on the economy, its impact on society including education and its impact on well-being.

That last harm represents the challenge of the coming mental health pandemic. For far too many Scots, that will start with profound loneliness. We can’t yet hug people like my neighbour used to, but we can do the next best thing.

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