“Social Distancing” - The Worst Public Health Advice
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK government recognized loneliness as ‘‘one of the greatest public health challenges of our time,” with Scotland and England establishing strategies to address the perceived crisis. Germany and Japan have already followed suit, with Sweden and Australia in active discussions, and other higher-income countries likely to consider similar schemes. All of these governments’ commitments to public health interventions are informed by evidence of social isolation and loneliness’s detrimental health impacts, ranging from low subjective well-being to shorter life expectancy. Some research suggests the toll may be equivalent to the negative effects of obesity. Age-old socio-political inequalities set the stage for recent trends in population processes (e.g., lower fertility rates, geographic mobility, longer life expectancies) and Covid-19 to have potentially devastating, long-lasting impacts on health through social isolation and loneliness.
Lecture and Q&A: Thursday 21 July 2022, 6pm to 8pm
Small group session with lecturer and facilitator (credited option only): Wednesday 27 July, 6pm to 7pm
Speaker
Dr Jo Mhairi Hale
School of Geography and Sustainable Development
Dr Jo Mhairi Hale is a member of the University’s Population and Health Research Group, and her research primarily focuses on how sociopolitical inequalities, such as by class, ethnicity, and migration histories, create inequalities in health and wellbeing. One of her key areas of interest is identifying the life-course social and behavioural risk factors for later-life cognitive impairment and dementia mortality. Her lecture will be based on a newer project studying how underlying socioeconomic, cultural, and political factors interact to shape experiences of loneliness and social isolation - the idea being that contextualising the phenomenon will better inform future preventions and interventions.
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Copyright: Eberhard Grossgasteiger