Putting the ‘Social’ into Frailty: operationalising social frailty for health and social care in the UK

As we age, we tend to use more health and social care services. This is because we may experience more health issues and often have less social interaction. Most people prefer to stay independent at home for as long as possible, but health and social care services do not always consider the broader circumstances of people’s lives to make this possible.

‘Social frailty’ means losing the things that help you stay connected and involved with others. This could include social resources (like friends or family), social activities (like going out or participating in groups), and the ability to manage your own social needs. Factors like low income, poor housing, or living in remote areas can also mean we need more care and support later in life.

Aims:

This project will create a set of questions for health and social care workers to identify people with ‘social frailty’. This will help detect and effectively respond to people who might need extra and diverse support in their lives.

Methods:

We will look at existing published academic research and large datasets on this topic to explore how it is being understood and measured by researchers and practitioners. We will set up advisory groups of practitioners and older people and their caregivers to help ensure that the questions are appropriate to them and feasible for use in everyday practice. We will then write a proposal for further research to test the questions to see if they are able to correctly identify people who need more support. This will also explore how it could be scaled up across the UK. We will then establish the best approaches or services that can meet these needs and help people retain as much independence as possible in later life.