Loneliness is "a burgeoning epidemic" that Canada has lacked the tools to know how to address — until now.
Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) York Region South Simcoe and Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence have launched Solutions for Belonging, a free evidence-based resource that aims to end chronic loneliness "and create a world where everyone belongs," according to a news release.
"Intended for local leaders and changemakers across Canada, Solutions for Belonging provides a framework to implement community-based strategies to solve loneliness," the release stated.
Existing prevention strategies have focused on individual loneliness, while Solutions for Belonging offers a community development approach that sets out specific conditions that contribute to a sense of belonging: presence, access, cultures and place.
“People need someone, some place and something to belong to,” said CMHA York Region South Simcoe CEO Rebecca Shields. “We’re taking a different approach to what’s been done before to address chronic loneliness. The Solutions for Belonging framework presents a community development approach we can do together to address loneliness, by creating the conditions for belonging within our communities.”
“Belonging mitigates loneliness. Feeling supported, seen, accepted and accommodated increases feelings of well-being, reducing the negative effects of chronic loneliness,” said Helen Yung, lead researcher from the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence. "We’ve seen evidence of this in community arts, we heard it in CMHA’s community consultations, and it makes intuitive sense to everyone. The key is for the enabling conditions to feel authentic and appropriate."
The Solutions for Belonging Framework proposes conditions for belonging confirmed by transdisciplinary research, as well as a suggested roadmap, community readiness criteria, key facts, risk factors, protective factors, sample data sources, and references for understanding health inequities as they relate to loneliness and belonging.
“Communities are unique, and priorities for addressing loneliness and creating belonging vary by community,” said Karen Beitel, CMHA Loneliness project lead. “Every community needs to address loneliness through a framework that factors in its own unique circumstances. With Solutions for Belonging, we believe we’ve provided a path forward for all communities to achieve that.”
Many negative health outcomes are associated with loneliness, such as earlier mortality, worse self-rated physical health, worse self-rated mental health, greater depressive symptoms and greater cognitive decline. In fact, the World Health Organization has declared loneliness a global health threat — as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Loneliness has also been found to be associated with increased health-care utilization among older adults and generally higher health care costs.
Some data shows that loneliness tends to rise in young adulthood, decline through middle adulthood, before increasing again in old age. In fact, young people in Canada express experiencing loneliness more frequently than older people. Among youth aged 15 to 24, nearly 23 per cent say they were always lonely or felt lonely, as compared to 14 per cent among seniors over 75.
The Solutions for Belonging framework is accessible for free. It was developed with the expertise and contributions of many, including an advisory circle with members from across a variety of sectors. Community leaders are invited to take up the framework to mitigate loneliness and create belonging.
About CMHA York Region South Simcoe
CMHA York Region South Simcoe is an award-winning branch of the national non-profit, Canadian Mental Health Association. As the nationwide leader and champion for mental health, CMHA facilitates access to the resources people require to maintain and improve mental health and community integration, build resilience, and support recovery from mental illness and addiction.
About the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence
The Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence is a social R&D company that specializes in re-imagining how things work in the world, through intersectoral collaborations that include artists, scientists, service providers, and others. Working across disciplines, sectors and lived experiences, the Lab contributes to projects on pathways for newcomers, innovation in science, and the role of culture in climate futures.
