Five years on, is Britain’s strategy to combat loneliness working?
Why it’s worth fighting harder against loneliness
“Where do they all come from?” wondered Paul McCartney in 1966. Britain’s government has taken a more analytical approach to lonely people. Five years ago it launched a “loneliness strategy”, to tackle “one of the greatest public-health challenges of our time.” The Office for National Statistics (ons) developed measures to test it. The government provided funds for research. It told doctors to try “social prescribing”, sending patients to social events rather than to the pharmacy. And it appointed a loneliness minister.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “All by myself”
Britain August 12th 2023
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