Oakland Stairlifts Today Announced Research Into How The Elderly Spend Christmas

Online, November 28, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Oakland Stairlifts, a stairlifts supplier based in Leicester, UK, today announced the findings of research into how the elderly spend their Christmas holidays.

With Christmas fast approaching many organised bodies have been conducting research into how people will be spending their Christmas holidays, with a particular focus on the elderly and how involved they are in their family's Christmas day celebrations.

Oakland Stairlifts today announced the results of a portion of research undertaken by Friends Of The Elderly, a charity working to end loneliness among the elderly. The charity hopes to achieve their goal by providing volunteers to talk to the elderly, befriending them both on the phone and in person.

The group found a shocking one million elderly people live alone in the UK, with half of them spending Christmas Day alone every year. When the charity asked people why they didn't see their elderly relatives or neighbours during the Christmas period, 44% claimed lack of time as the main issue.

Christmas is a time of year when families usually gather together to celebrate, but the elderly are often unable to drive, and cannot get themselves to their family. The family often struggles to find a way of bringing their elderly relatives with them, apparently due to time and weather restrictions. A Customer Service Representative for Oakland Stairlifts commented, "When we found this research we were shocked by the number of families that don't make the effort to fetch their elderly relatives for Christmas. With many of our customers we see the family helping in any way they can to get a stairlift installed, but we also see elderly customers who have had to sort out their home stairlifts all on their own."

The Telegraph Newspaper conducted similar research into how the elderly spend the Christmas holidays. It showed 48% of the elderly in the UK have no relatives living locally, leaving them to either drive themselves to the family for Christmas, or be picked up by any family members passing by.

Friends Of The Elderly are asking for volunteers to work through the Christmas period, sending post cards to the elderly, phoning them for chats and even visiting them to spend time with them. As more people help the cause there should be less and less elderly feeling lonely during the Christmas Holidays.

Oakland Stairlifts are a UK based reliable stairlifts supplier. The company work with people of all ages who are in need of stairlifts, however the elderly are the largest group of customers the company provide for. As Christmas draws nearer Oakland Stairlifts will be preparing their engineers for any faults occurring over the holiday period which need fixing urgently, and continuing to support a group that deserves it.