Age UK South Gloucestershire and local non-profit Comfort Companions CIC have launched a community-funded initiative to tackle loneliness among older people stuck on the charity’s befriending waiting list.
Age UK currently has around 200 people waiting for volunteer befriending support. Last year, seven older people on that list died before anyone reached them.
Grant Mackenzie, a volunteer at Age UK and founder of Comfort Companions CIC, said: “When I heard that seven people had died on the waiting list without anyone ever getting to them, I couldn’t get it out of my head. No one in our community should die without having someone to speak to. A simulated person is not the same as a real one, but it is far better than silence.”
Comfort Companions are friendly digital companions that hold natural, human-like conversations and are designed specifically for older British people. Each person is matched with one or more of five companions – Dorothy, Edith, Frank, Malcolm or Rosie – using a short personality quiz, so the experience feels warm and familiar rather than clinical.
The service is co-designed with older adults and Age UK staff and is delivered with volunteer support, not as a standalone app. Age UK’s volunteers help people set up the companion and learn how to use it, and remain involved alongside their existing befriending and support services.
Mark Flower, CEO at Age UK South Gloucestershire, said: “We’re incredibly grateful to Comfort Companions to be working with us, solving a real problem that we have. Demand for befriending far outstrips supply, and too many older people die waiting for support. We have a befriending service, which at the moment has 200 people waiting on it, waiting for somebody to be their friend. This project can be a lifeline for those who would otherwise go unheard.”
Grant added: “Many older people are understandably wary of technology that listens all the time. We have designed Comfort Companions to be as simple and respectful as possible: you tap the face to talk, you know when it’s listening, and your conversations stay between you and your companion.”
For older people using the service, Comfort Companions is completely free. The initiative is funded entirely by the local community through a new sponsorship appeal. However, the service is not free to run and so donations are being encouraged from the public to enable the service to continue.
Age UK is recruiting initial pilot users who are digitally confident or supported by volunteers, so the companions can be tested safely in real homes. The first phase will focus on older people on the befriending waiting list who spend long stretches of time alone.
As the campaign grows, the aim is to offer a Comfort Companion to everyone on the Age UK South Gloucestershire befriending waiting list, and then to extend the model across the wider area and to other local Age UKs.
In the next development phase, Comfort Companions will also support memory and daily recall for people with early dementia or mild cognitive impairment, helping them remember what was said in key health encounters and what they need to do afterwards, without making clinical decisions.
“Our message is simple,” says Grant. “No one in South Gloucestershire should die waiting for someone to talk to. This is something we can change together, right now, for the price of a couple of coffees a month.”
For more information or to make a donation to the campaign, visit the dedicated new website at: comfortcompanions.co.uk