Loneliness, a complex and multifaceted issue, is a crucial concern for policymakers. Establishing a Minister of Loneliness and the Prime Minister’s personal experience underscores the depth of this societal challenge.
It’s problematic for any organisation to tackle; it’s like a ghost that inhabits every visible issue that services are responsible for, be it health, unemployment, homelessness, young people, etc.
Is it because public services have developed identifiable services only based on material needs for too long or because people present themselves with those issues?
Imagine what certain newspapers would say if there was a service to tackle loneliness. They would have a field day talking about non-jobs. Either way, it’s a difficult issue to tackle, and even more so for lonely people.
You can go to a GP and say, “I’ve got a headache,” or go to a job centre and say, “The restaurant you work at has had to close down, and you’ve lost your job.” But would you go up to a service, let alone a friend, and say you’re lonely?
That’s why the solution can’t be a service to help lonely people. Loneliness is a symptom rather than a cause, partly because people are lonely for different reasons, and partly because people who are lonely don’t necessarily want to be solved.
We must think outside the box and develop innovative approaches to address loneliness. I’ve written about working with Loneliness Lab to tackle loneliness. Still, I want to talk about how the idea of tackling “loneliness in plain sight” by Janice Johnson, someone I was on the same @enrolyourself programme, is so powerful.
She organises “Eating with Elephants,” a supper club where people connect over drink and food and break the silence of social stigma. These are on different issues, but the one I went to was on loneliness. At the supper club, I was it, and everyone surprised everyone about how they were lonely in a different way. ‘Eating with Elephants’ provides a safe and comfortable space for individuals to share their experiences and connect, reducing the stigma associated with loneliness.
What ways have you seen or developed that tackle loneliness? Your experiences and insights are valuable in our collective effort to address this issue.
