Chair File: Addressing the Epidemic of Loneliness in Our Communities

December is a happy holiday season for many Americans who plan celebrations and spend time connecting and gathering with family and friends. Yet the year-end holidays can have a significant impact on people’s physical health and mental well-being — buoying our spirits at times while also eliciting feelings of anxiousness and stress and, for some, loneliness and sadness.

Earlier this year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, M.D., released the publication “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community.”

In this advisory report, Murthy shares that during his extensive travels across the country so many people he met — of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds — expressed feelings of loneliness and social disconnection. Murthy calls for building a movement to “destigmatize loneliness and change our cultural and policy response to it.” He emphasizes that “loneliness and isolation represent profound threats to our health and well-being.”

Statistics cited in the report convey how widespread loneliness is and its negative impact on people’s health. Results from a study conducted before the pandemic revealed that one in two adults in the U.S. reported experiencing loneliness, with high rates among young adults.

Numerous research studies link lack of social connection to an increased risk for premature death — equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Lack of social connection also is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other diseases and health disorders.

Please take a look at the report, which outlines factors that shape social connection, strategies to advance social connection and much more. One recommended strategy is to mobilize the health sector, which includes training health care providers, assessing and supporting patients, and expanding public health surveillance and interventions.

Hospital and health system teams have recognized the positive effects of strong social connections on the health of individuals and communities and are addressing this issue. For example:

• Meritus Health in Maryland has created a Care Callers program that enlists staff and volunteers to call and check in with patients who have reported experiencing loneliness on a social determinants of health questionnaire. Meritus President and CEO Maulik Joshi is one of the callers.
   
• Dell Children’s Medical Center in Texas, part of Ascension, has partnered with Hand to Hold, a program that provides support, in English and Spanish, for parents who have an infant who died or was hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit. Clinicians say this program helps reduce feelings of isolation for mothers and their families.
   
• At Grady, the health system in Georgia that I lead, we have identified loneliness and social isolation as part of mental health care, one of our community’s priority health needs. Medical students have made outreach calls to older adult patients to address loneliness and access to care.

The benefits of social connection to the health of our patients, families and communities are clear. This holiday season — and throughout the year — let’s seek out opportunities to meaningfully connect with our family, co-workers, friends and even strangers in our community, strengthening social bonds and reaching out as needed to get help for others and ourselves.