Understanding and alleviating loneliness in later life: perspectives of older people

Dr Mary Pat Sullivan is a Canadian Trained Social Worker with over ten years’ experience of developing, delivering and evaluating geriatric mental health services in Ontario. She is currently Division Lead for Social Work in the College of Health and Life Sciences at the Brunel University London. She is a Member of the Brunel Initiative for Ageing Studies (BIAS) within the Institute of Environment, Health and Societies. Her principal research interests are focused around gerontological social work practice including geriatric mental health, dementia care, social isolation and loneliness, elder abuse and ageing without children. She is the Honorary Secretary of the British Society of Gerontology and on the Editorial Board for the journal Ageing and Society.

Christina Rita Victor is a Professor of Gerontology and Public Health and Vice Dean (Research) in the College of Health and Life Sciences at the Brunel University, London. Her main research interests are focused upon healthy ageing and she is a Core Member of the Brunel Initiative for Ageing Studies (BIAS) within the Institute of Environment, Health and Societies. More specifically her research interests include health and health inequalities in later life; evaluation of services for older people; loneliness and isolation; the benefits of exercise and activity in later life and the experiences of old age and later life amongst minority communities. Christina has published 13 books and over 200 papers in the fields of gerontology and public health and has a keen interest in promoting research and in research impact. Her initial work on loneliness funded by ESRC contributed to the development of the charity The Campaign to End Loneliness. She has published widely in the field of social gerontology and has provided numerous media interviews and expert briefings with policy makers, practitioners, politicians/ministers and older people on this subject. She is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and Editor-in-Chief of Ageing and Society, the leading European-based gerontology journal.

Michael Thomas is a Lecturer in Social Work in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research at the University of Kent. His broad research interests include the diversity of contemporary family life, with a particular focus on LGB identities within family and other social networks. Before joining Kent in January 2014, he completed a PhD in social policy at the Cardiff University, focusing on same-sex marriage and civil partnerships in the UK, Canada and California. He qualified as a Social Worker in 2007 and had worked previously in central government, specialising in International Policy in a number of departments including the Home Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for Work and Pensions.