Kent County Council is to invest heavily in eradicating loneliness and isolation among the elderly.

The local authority is assigning a further £380K to develop befriending services across the county.

Volunteers will visit vulnerable older people across the county, ensuring they have regular contact and hopefully bring them back into the community.

The cash boost is part of £18million of government funding to improve adult social care.

Many voluntary agencies deliver befriending services across the county, working hard to combat the devastating effects that loneliness can bring.

As well as reducing or eliminating social isolation, such visits are also credited with improving mental health and allowing people to live in their own homes for longer.

Sandra Richards, a 70-year-old volunteer, has been a befriender for the past six years and visits an elderly lady with dementia once a week.

She said: “I wanted to do it because it’s giving something back into the community. I used to be a community nurse for years and I know how there are these forgotten people no-one seems to think much about and I wanted to help in some way.”

Sandra is a volunteer with charity CARM, through its Well-being at Home befriending scheme which aims to reduce social isolation and improve mental health, as well as help people to stay in their own homes for longer. CARM is just one of the many voluntary agencies which deliver befriending services across Kent.

More than 60 voluntary agencies have applied for year-long grants to pilot new models of befriending from next month. KCC will then use these schemes to develop a countywide service in 2014.

Graham Gibbens, KCC cabinet member for adult social care and public health, said: “It is hard to overestimate how debilitating loneliness and isolation can be for people’s wellbeing. If elderly people are cut off from the community, they are more likely to be depressed and see their health suffer, resulting in hospital stays or having to move into a residential home.

“Befrienders make such a difference to the lives of elderly, isolated people, as it gives them someone to talk to, to help them do the things they enjoy and look out for their well-being. We are all responsible for looking after the most vulnerable in society and we need more people to volunteer their time to support someone in their community who needs them.”

To find out more about becoming a befriender, visit www.kent.gov.uk/volunteering.