In many countries across the world, older people are one of the groups most vulnerable to loneliness. Community-based responses are well placed to support and enhance pre-existing coping strategies in older people. However, the evidence base of these responses remain scattered and obscured, particularly in relation to their design and reasons behind their success. In this systematic review, we focus on qualitative studies on community-based responses to loneliness among older people to learn how these responses work in practice with in-depth details. At the end of a systematic searching and screening process, 17 studies conducted in five countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Spain and the UK) published in English were selected and reviewed initially in October 2020 and then updated at the end of August 2021. Three themes were identified as being most valuable to addressing loneliness in a specific community, namely, autonomy, new social connections, and belonging. These interventions were also employed according to three primary considerations: what the community lacked, how that community experienced loneliness, or a combination of both. Several implications for policymakers and future research emerged, urging future interventions to take a more contextual approach that encompasses communitylevel considerations before establishing a user-led and tailored setting that facilitates social engagement.

After more than a year living with COVID-19 restrictions, the UK Governments have now published their ‘recovery strategies’ in which social care has been considered as key to plans for post-COVID-19 recovery in England and the devolved nations. Emerging literature has already explored the ethical and practical challenges facing social workers during COVID-19 and how social work practice has been re-created to embrace hybrid ways of working. To add to this discussion, a secondary qualitative data analysis was performed on a subset of data (280 responses submitted by 176 social workers) collected from the British Association of Social Workers’ (BASW) survey on social work during COVID-19, to explore how social workers’ sensual bodies had been responding to challenges arising from the pandemic. Drawing on sociology of senses and social work literature on tacit knowing and practice wisdom, we will present how social workers’ sensual bodies have been suspended, displaced and re-constituted during the first UK national lockdown, leading to sensual compensation and sensual overload that impacted on social workers’ practice. In striving towards a ‘better normal’, we offer key insights to implement hybrid social work practice and protect against the shortfalls that it might bring to the profession.

Loneliness is an increasingly ubiquitous topic in academic, policy, and healthcare domains. This work typically focuses on its negative physical and mental health consequences, generally employing a singular cognitive definition of loneliness. In doing so, one central aspect of our social world has been neglected in loneliness research and policy: touch. Touch is a fundamental human behaviour and a powerful form of communication which plays a role in physical and psychological wellbeing. This narrative review outlines a conceptual basis upon which to consider the relationship between loneliness and social touch and reviews the available research examining this connection. There are strong indications that these social phenomena can interact in a variety of ways and this review argues that elements of presence, absence, and type of touch may impact upon loneliness experiences. Additionally, this review considers the challenges inherent to researching touch and loneliness, reflecting on their sensitive and subjective nature. The increasing relevance of the touch–loneliness connection is described in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and recommendations are given for research, policy, and practice. This review proposes that touch should be a key topic for investigation in loneliness research and outlines the potentially invaluable role of touch in understanding loneliness.