Why We Do It.
Despite a thriving and mostly affluent community, issues with loneliness, social isolation, and community inequality exist.
A complex issue, and causes many, symptoms such as living alone, having few to no children or contact with family, being of low income, lacking access to transport, and having a compromised health status or multiple health problems were common-place. For our elder residents, the issue is simply magnified.
Somehow despite being surrounded, people continue to feel isolated and alone.
We sought to understand and do more
What are Loneliness and Social Isolation?
Social isolation is a state in which the individual lacks a sense of belonging socially, lacks engagement with others, has a minimal number of social contacts, and they are deficient in fulfilling and quality relationships.
Loneliness is the discrepancy between a person’s desired and actual social relationships.
Researchers typically measure social connectedness based on four key areas:
1. the nature and frequency of people’s social interactions,
2. available social supports,
3. interpersonal trust, and
4. socio-economic advantage.
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A 2015 US meta-analytic review found that social isolation, loneliness, and living alone increased risk of early mortality by 29%, 26%, and 32% respectively, indicating that both subjective and objective social isolation pose as serious a risk to health as well-established risk factors such as smoking and obesity.
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​Loneliness costs Australia an estimated $2.7bn each year due to adverse health outcomes, and has worsened throughout the Covid pandemic, according to a new report measuring social connectedness.
How lonely are Australians?
Let's Make A Change
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