Addressing the Silent Epidemic: Combating Loneliness for Better Health and Well-Being
Although most of us think of loneliness as an emotional state, it takes a physical toll on brains and bodies when lack of human contact becomes chronic. In fact, social isolation increases total risk of premature death by up to 50 percent.
Social isolation, and closely connected to loneliness, carries greater health risk than obesity or smoking and has been shown to increase mortality, mobility loss, functional decline, and clinical dementia.
Loneliness and isolation are widespread, with approximately half of U.S. adults experiencing loneliness.
10 years ago, following a visit with older adults who were using the Silver Sneakers program, the light bulb went off in Donato Tramuto’s head that older adults were not simply interested in exercising and rather they had a need for social connection. His finding was challenged by many at that time and unfortunately a decade later loneliness and isolation remain widespread. In fact, the World Health Organization has now estimated that 25% of the world’s population is experiencing loneliness.
Long called a silent epidemic by Donato Tramuto, he shared in this USA Today Oped, that “our nation has done relatively little to address this public health challenge. The solutions range from the simple and immediate — individuals reaching out to elders in their world — to the complex and long term, such as policy changes that prioritize building social infrastructure for seniors.”
Disconnection fundamentally affects all aspects of our wellbeing and physical health yet the solutions are readily available in many circumstances.
The Surgeon General has identified six pillars detailing recommendations that individuals, governments, workplaces, health systems, and community organizations can take to increase connection in their lives, communities, and across the nation. You can access the report here.
The TramutoFoundation and its founder Donato Tramuto have been leaders on this issue, striving to raise awareness and meaningful social change. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, social isolation and loneliness has been exacerbated in a multitude of ways and is no longer an issue largely facing older individuals.
It is our hope that together we can weave a stronger social fabric from today’s disparate pieces and ensure a more connected and healthier tomorrow.
Some of our efforts to address this Silent Epidemic include:
- Partnering to create The Institute for Integrative Aging at Saint Joseph’s College, a program aimed at providing rural older adults access to a creative, age-friendly, learning environment. The Institute is also creating a student body and workforce that is well-equipped to support a rapidly growing aging population through the development of new courses and certificate programs. As Honorary Scholar-in-Residence, Donato Tramuto has focused on three core areas in collaboration with students, faculty and staff across the college: compassionate leadership, loneliness and social isolation, and social determinants of health. 100% of the proceeds from Donato’s second book, The Double Bottom Line, go towards this program as well as 6 other compassionate causes.
- Creating a Task Force on Loneliness which has now morphed into an Advisory Board. Launched in 2021 following the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the launch of the Foundation, the Advisory Board have come to the conclusion that simple solutions can help to reduce the state of loneliness and social isolation. By taking the time to check up on your neighbor, promoting programs like Silver Sneakers or programs offered by Health Insurers like Humana, calling a relative or friend, taking the time to listen to understand the stories of other people, working with your local College to connect younger and older adults, hosting a block party and going the extra mile to make sure that the person who may initially turn down the invitation attends, and there are scores of other small yet meaningful interventions all of us can employ – today!
- Hosting the Connectivity Summit on Rural Aging via our Health eVillages programs, launched in 2017 by Donato when he was the CEO at Tivity, the Summit brought together more than 130 national, regional and local leaders representing healthcare, government, academia, and the private sector. The Summit is hosted in partnership with Tivity Health, the MIT AgeLab, and the Jefferson College of Population Health. Building on this effort, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) hosted a roundtable titled “Rural Aging: Health and Community Policy Implications for Reversing Social Isolation” in Washington, D.C., on June 7, 2018 and subsequently released this report on reversing social isolation among rural seniors.
Donato’s long-standing commitment and work on this important issue
In addition to the many efforts undertaken by the TramutoPorter Foundation, Donato Tramuto continues to leverage his voice and influence to bring needed attention to social isolation and loneliness.
In March of 2022, Donato was the keynote speaker for the first annual Aging and Loneliness Session Series, a track within the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), a global advisor, thought leader and member-based society committed to reforming the global health ecosystem through the power of information and technology.
The series was designed to give voice to the experience, challenges, and needs of those aging and health compromised – explore the ways in which solutions that are supposed to keep them safe where they live have let them down; and introduce novel approaches to sensing, machine learning, and care delivery that may enable this growing population – our parents, grandparents, many of us – to live longer, more safely, with more joy wherever they may choose to live.
Opeds / Podcasts / Social Media
USA Today, “This Christmas season, we must ask the seniors in our lives, ‘Are you lonely?’”
The Hill, “Loneliness kills: A new public health crisis (and what we can do about it)”
The Tennessean, “Social isolation is a national epidemic and should be treated as such”
Washington Examiner, “The social isolation epidemic in rural America”
LinkedIn, “Mental Health Month 2023”