The CC deputy indicates that autonomous communities and city councils have been working for years on which the State now wants to deepenValido warns that the effects of population ageing will highlight the importance of this social sector in the coming yearsMadrid, 20 March 2024The deputy of the Canary Islands Coalition (CC), Cristina Valido, He has called for the state strategy against unwanted loneliness to be based on the work already carried out by the autonomous communities and city councils to address the situation of people who live alone.

"If we are now talking about unwanted loneliness, we have to value the enormous work that autonomous communities and city councils have been doing for more than a decade and also demand that they be adequately financed by deepening the economic needs of the social sector that fights it," said the deputy of Coalición Canaria during her speech before the plenary session of Congress. Cristina Valido called for the work already carried out by regional and local entities to alleviate the effects of unwanted loneliness to be taken into account because "there are many active ageing programmes that have been launched by social entities and public entities, as well as professionals in the social sector". The deputy of Coalición Canaria also referred to the data offered by the entities that work in this social sector because they indicate "not only the percentage of those people who feel lonely, but data as chilling as the cost of that unwanted loneliness, which is close to 14,000 million euros between health or social expenses and in expenses derived from low productivity of many people who, without being retired, find themselves they feel lonely and suffer from mental health issues." The Canarian nationalist deputy stressed the need to "bring the work that is designed in a state key closer to all the strategies that the territories and municipalities have put in place, and that the costs that they have incurred are taken into account so that the necessary financing is included in this state strategy". "Because until now," Cristina Valido stressed, "all the funding has been provided alone by municipalities with very few resources but with very important programs for the care of their elderly who live alone, especially in those towns where young people have left and the elderly have been left alone." Valido also highlighted the work carried out by professionals in the social sector linked to entities such as the Red Cross and Caritas with programmes such as Zero Solitude or Coffee and Heat. "For years they have been working against unwanted loneliness and active ageing, because what they need is more help and more effort, of course with more funding, to strengthen the programmes that are already underway and that are being developed by professionals in a sector who know this type of social situation very well," Valido said when warning that, due to demographic effects, more and more people in old age could suffer from unwanted loneliness. Because unwanted loneliness has multiple factors and causes, including problems due to the lack of social relationships, and sometimes the lack of skills to have them, but also the economic situation, age, disability, mobility or accessibility problems, and sometimes with communication problems," said Cristina Valido. "These situations of loneliness affect the elderly and people with disabilities in an important way because our elderly say goodbye to friends and family, and thus they are left alone," said the nationalist deputy to underline the need to combine efforts of the administrations to address a social challenge that will increase in relevance in the coming years.