Urbanisation is a growing trend in Irish society. Critical
mass, planners tell us, is the key to delivering better services and access. So
it might surprise you to find out that
in fact isolation levels in Co Wexford are highest in urban parts of the
county.
This contradicts the narrative of the death of rural Ireland
where post offices, garda stations and shops have all shut in recent years.
What stands out in figures released by Wexford County Council is that social
isolation is highest in Enniscorthy, and all 3 urban areas of Wexford.
Social isolation is the absence of social
contact and can lead to loneliness. It can be caused by ageing, distance from
loved ones, poor personal health, unemployment among other factors. When you drill down it is easy to see why
Wexford might have levels of isolation above the national average.
It has an older population, family structures
branch when children leave school and are drawn to work or study in large
cities. Lower incomes mean that older people have less resources to socialise.
There’s cultural reasons too. Strong attachment between parent and child can
lead to a sense of loss when young adults go to work or study. How we interact
has changed, we visit and talk less on the phone and WhatsApp or message more.
Lives are more busy, we consume more in greater amounts in our lives.
Social isolation didn’t arrive overnight. It
is a product of a cultural and societal value shift over many decades. There’s
lots of different forms of social isolation. How it impacts on one group can be
different to how it impacts on another. Older age groups will have a wider set
of life experiences and may be better able to address how to tackle isolation.
My concern is about younger people being isolated.
Young people nowadays are under more pressure
than when their parents were in the same age group. Players drift away from GAA or sports clubs
when they are 12. That’s a lot earlier than my day. Young people are not coping
well with the highly competitive nature of society. Add to that the influence of
social media, the instantaneous impact of posting, the speed and acceptance of social
anger in daily discourse. It impacts on boys and girls in different ways and it
adds stress on top of social isolation with inevitable consequences for mental
health. Parents may find themselves in
the position that instead of being the first person to see something is not as
it is, but the person who has to cope and play catch up.
That’s why I’m convinced that when it comes to dealing with mental
health issues, it is too late to be looking for a cure when you have an issue. We tend
to blame government for societal negatives and believe that solutions can be
instant. It’s not the done thing to give a government a free pass at election
time. But if it took decades to get to this stage in terms of the causes of
isolation, it will take decades to get to a better place. That’s an awful
prospect for our children and future generations.
Government have a role to play, sure, but so
too have parents, schools, society, business and how each of those components behave. Until
such a time as all work together isolation will continue, young people will
carry a burden and some of us will ask why and who benefits at the end of the
day.
Joe i really don't like your insinuation that because rural Ireland is alive and and well because those who feel most isolated are living in towns. The death of rural Ireland has to do with lack of public services and as more and more people are forced to live with the critical mass of course that is going to be. There is nowhere more lonely than being in a crowd. I think you miss the point here. Rural areas are more self reliant as they have learnt to their cost that no one out side of each area gives a damn. I don't "know" my neighbours but I know my neighbours are always willing to lend a helping hand if I need it. That's because there are less of us so w3 tend to ask each other for the odd dig out. Towns don't facilitate this. I have lived in many towns or cities and felt far more isolated than I do living in the country. But that doesn't mean we don't feel the effects of being isolated by government due to lack of services. This is the dwa4h knell as policy pushed people into the urban centres.
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