09/06/2023
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy recently released an advisory addressing an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” in the United States. Americans have been reporting more time spent alone, smaller social networks, and fewer people they can confide in. Isolation is not a trivial thing, but a serious threat to survival, coming with increased stress, insomnia, su***de risk, and hypertension.
The report describes loneliness and disconnection as a national health concern comparable to obesity, diabetes, and smoking.
Loneliness and social isolation increase the risk for premature death by 26% and 29% respectively. In the U.S., stress-related absenteeism attributed to loneliness costs employers an estimated $154 billion annually. Approximately half of U.S. adults report experiencing loneliness, with some of the highest rates among young adults. In 2018, only 16% of Americans reported that they felt very attached to their local community. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated trends in declining social participation.
But communities need to be more connected because higher levels of social connection are associated with increased levels of civic engagement and more representative government.
A Surgeon General’s Advisory is a public statement that calls the American people’s attention to an urgent public health issue and provides recommendations for how it should be addressed. The advisory calls attention to the importance of social connection for individual health as well as on community-wide metrics of health and well-being. The advisory presents a framework for a national strategy with specific recommendations for the institutions that shape our day-to-day lives: governments, health care systems and insurers, public health departments, research institutions, philanthropy, schools, workplaces, community-based organizations, technology companies, and the media.
💻The Advisory offers a national strategy to advance social connection and suggests The Six Pillars to Advance Social Connection among which is #4 reform digital environments - support development of pro-connection technologies and create safe environments for discourse, including across diverse communities and perspectives.
📍We in Urbanpinion think that citizen engagement tools unlike social media platforms can lead to better mental health, since they offer an opportunity for people from different communities to be heard and take an active part in the discussion even if they are far away from each other. These tools provide a safe, cultural and transparent space for discourse on really important topics like urban environment, ecology, education, local budget allocation and health. They are focused on making a safe place for discussion, providing private data safety and organizing a transparent and open research and analysis of collected opinions.
👋Collective discussion of urban community problems leads to better relationships between people, reduction of conflicts, creation of city landscapes appropriate for different groups of people and acting much better on mental health, reduction of vandalism and unsocial behavior, greater self-confidence of people, fair budget allocation - and coming out of this all a sense of individual and community belonging.
Let's create better cities and healthier communities together.
https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf
