interaction effect was found, such that older active in their communities. Strong partnership adults who lived alone and did not own a pet arrangements need to be in place between were at increased odds of reporting loneliness” organisations to ensure that developed services regardless of gender (Stanley et al. 2014). This can be sustained (Windle et al. 2011). finding indicates that pets may function as a A good example comes from the Campaign to meaningful source of social connectedness. End Loneliness, a network of national, regional Notably, pets depend on their owners for survival, and local organisations working together to potentially giving their owner a sense of worth reduce loneliness in later life, who have produced and responsibility for another living being. This a toolkit for health and wellbeing boards. is consistent with studies of human interactions, The toolkit provides guidance on identifying which show that providing support to others, local prevalence of loneliness, strengthening rather than receiving it, may confer greater health partnerships and evaluating implementation when benefits (Brown et al. 2003). Caring for a pet also producing Joint Strategic Needs Assessments requires behavioural activation, such as walking and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies. It is or going to the veterinary office, which may bring too early to say how successful this initiative has about interactions with other people and, by been, but it demonstrates the need to tackle virtue of increased mobility, extend into other loneliness and isolation by working with key domains of health as well. stakeholders across different sectors. However, it should be noted that loneliness is only a single indicator of health, and that pet ownership, if not managed properly, may actually be deleterious to the well-being of an older adult. Although limitations of pet ownership do exist, careful planning could mitigate any negative consequences of pet ownership. The role of different sectors Given the health-related, financial and wider community imperatives, there has been a national policy consensus that support must be provided to reduce isolation and loneliness as it affects older people. There is now an opportunity to extend this recognition to younger and working- age people. Although there is clear recognition that the third sector must be involved in some way, there is no consensus about the roles of the third sector vis-à-vis the statutory sector, or the potential role of the private sector. However, there have been some promising developments on this front in the Scottish Parliament, largely through the efforts of the Equal Opportunities Committee (Scottish Parliament 2015). What is clear is that GPs, social workers, housing associations, and other frontline services are well placed to identify people who are at risk of isolation or loneliness, but so are people who are Interventions 28