麻豆社

Loneliness is as harmful to your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, according to Age UK. The charity says it increases the risk of dementia, high blood pressure and depression. The claim comes as the charity calls on the Government to take urgent action and recognise it as a serious health problem and for local councils to do more to help tackle it. According to a poll by AGE UK, three-quarters of 65's year olds across the country - that's 3-million people- are not looking forward to Christmas this year. Three-hundred thousand of them say its because they know they'll be on their own this festive period. Well just last week Leicester City Council launched its own scheme to encourage people to visit those that might be at risk of loneliness.
Also, children's services in England, which are judged to be failing vulnerable youngsters, are to be taken over by high-performing councils and charities. Child abuse cases in places like Rochdale, Rotherham, Derby and Oxfordshire, have exposed failings by local councils. Now the Prime Minister's announcing a crack-down. In March this year, Leicester City Council announced a number of changes, after its own services were found to be "inadequate" by Ofsted.
And, Leicester is understood to be one of the first cities in the country to be receiving Syrian refugees accepted under a government scheme agreed in September with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Five families - we understand a total of around 15 people - are in the process of arriving here now, just ahead of Christmas. They're among the twenty thousand over the next five years, to be relocated directly from U.N.-run camps surrounding Syria in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Leicester's already well-established as a welcoming place for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. But what's it really like for those who've been forced to remove themselves from their home country?