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.
I think you misunderstand me. I’m not denying that loneliness has health effects. I just question if it’s actually an emergency or if this is just a bombastic response to an issue, because that’s what they see as a viable way to get funding and attention. If we declare every problem to be an emergency, then that sort of response becomes the new norm and nothing is actually treated as an emergency.