Silent epidemic is worst health crisis of our generation
Experts team up to fight loneliness
DR KEITH SWANICK is the Fianna Fail spokesman for health and mental health in the Seanad.
In response to what he has described as a “silent epidemic”, he set up the Loneliness Taskforce with ALONE charity chief Sean Moynihan.
It held its first meeting on Wednesday to consider more than 300 submissions and begin drawing up recommendations for Government.
Here Senator Swanick explains why we need to tackle the growing crisis of loneliness.
Loneliness is a silent epidemic and I believe it is the public health crisis of our generation. I am often asked why I have started to campaign about the issue. It is because as a GP I see on a daily basis the profound medical and mental health problems often exacerbated by loneliness and social isolation.
When I first spoke on the issue in Seanad Eireann in October 2017, I referred to the scientific, medical and public policy research on the issue of loneliness and isolation which suggests “a lonely person is significantly more likely to suffer an early death than a non-lonely one”.
I decided to take the initiative and establish the Loneliness Taskforce in collaboration with Sean Moynihan from ALONE.
We believed we needed to turbocharge the response to loneliness and to stop it in its tracks.
The taskforce includes a range of people from the community and voluntary sectors, nursing, sport, business, medicine, youth work, psychiatry and non-government organisations. The submissions received have been eye-opening in a sense. We have long attributed loneliness as something which only affects older people but what we have seen through the more than 300 responses is loneliness crosses all divides. The taskforce heard from people who were young, new parents, those who were divorced or a single parent, from people with disabilities, returning emigrants, home carers, recently retired people and entrepreneurs. We can say with certainty loneliness never discriminates between young and old, rich and poor or urban and rural. The submission below – a snapshot of what we received – is unfortunately more common than it is uncommon. Through its work the Loneliness Taskforce wants to show this is a major problem. That it is a public health risk, a social challenge and an economic issue. We want to raise awareness, remove the stigma attached to being lonely and offer real and implementable solutions.
One thing of note we witnessed through the submissions is the amount of people who got in touch to ask how they can help, to ask how they can volunteer their own time to help others.
That has been a very heart-warming aspect of this process. We want to foster this community spirit.
For more information visit www.lonelinesstaskforce.com
The responses have been eye-opening. Loneliness crosses all divides DR KEITH SWANICK LONELINESS TASKFORCE