News

23267 readers

3227 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

156

Silicon Valley county becomes first in U.S. to declare loneliness a health emergency (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A mountain of research has linked loneliness to an increased risk of dementia, depression, anxiety, heart disease, stroke and early death.

Loneliness is officially a health emergency in California's San Mateo County, which is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and includes part of Silicon Valley.

The county's Board of Supervisors passed a resolution on Tuesday that declared loneliness a public health crisis and pledged to explore measures that promote social connection in the community.

It’s the first county in the U.S. to make such a declaration.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I don't understand why everyone is saying that loneliness is an epidemic and yet nobody is trying to develop solutions for it.

If it were up to me, I would give funding to social psychologists to have them develop social programs to reduce loneliness. I'm talking about programs that actually get strangers together physically, on a regular basis, to help them form real friendships and communities. (Like Meetup.com, but more structured and more effective.) There are lots of different ways this could be approached, and I wish researchers would start running some experiments to see what works.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Saw this the other day, blue state delivering. Ned Lamont turning the force and attention of Connecticut public health agencies toward meaningfully addressing this problem. Seems like a lot of smart people are invested in this in CT as a holistic approach.

https://portal.ct.gov/DPH/Newsroom/Press-Releases---2024/Social-connection

“As a nation and a state, we are seeing an epidemic of loneliness and isolation. The health impacts of this epidemic are very real – they are so significant and so widespread that the U.S. Surgeon General has put social isolation and loneliness on the same level as public health crises like tobacco addiction, AIDS, drunk driving, obesity, and gun violence.” said Lt. Governor Bysiewicz. “We've seen recent efforts emerging to address this crisis, and today marks an important next step in exploring how we, as a state, can best address this issue.”

Inspired by the work of U.S. Senator Chris Murphy and a recent advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General, the Social Connection Campaign will:

Facilitate collaboration on an inter-agency basis to identify opportunities to foster greater social connection.

Raise awareness of existing and new efforts by State Agencies that improve social connection.

Work with partners beyond state government (federal, municipal, nonprofit, private, grassroots orgs and the public) to identify gaps, opportunities, and ideas related to improving social connection.

“The Connecticut Department of Public Health is proud to be a part of the Social Connection Campaign and its mission of addressing the concerns of loneliness and isolation,” said Department of Public Health (DPH) Commissioner Manisha Juthani, MD. “There are several public health issues that are exacerbated by isolation. Some of these include chronic diseases, suicide and gun violence, children and adults with special health care needs, pregnant women who do not have access to proper pre-natal care, and the lack of proper eating habits and physical activity.”

.....

I think one problem is it's so hard to trust strangers nowadays, hard to get to know who people really are.