Men and Women
Some of you may have, when visiting this website and looked at it, thought why does CM2M focus solely on men 55+ who are either lonely or socially isolated, and in some cases both? You may have seen our other blogs, and also seen that as a male carer for a male parent this was our founders life experience so that is one of the driving reason why he started CM2M, and focuses on men supporting men. However, by supporting these men, in many cases we are supporting their carer, if they have one, who is often female or another female member of the family.
Research – what we know?
Chris Hill, our founder, was in Bristol at a workshop that was looking at older men at the margins, which is a partnership project between University of Bristol and Age UK. What they found, and I firmly believe many of you reading this will know is that women are more likely to have wider social networks than men across their lifetime, older men less likely to have monthly contact with friends. Older men without partners report higher levels of loneliness and isolation than women without partners. This was my dad after my mum had passed away. Also, older men are less are likely to access older people’s services such as social clubs and day centres. See http://www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/research/projects/current/older-men-at-the-margins/
Stop the epidemic
What was really good about the workshop, yes, the professionals and service providers were in room but so were people with lived experience, older men, myself as a carer for an older man and we felt like we were being listened to. So CM2M will contribute to ending this loneliness and isolation, both supporting the older men and the carers, including the growing number of female carers.
Find out more on the services we offer https://cm2m.co.uk/services/