LONELINESS

adults, who are twice as likely to live alone and often lack family support, according to a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Across town at Dayspring Villa, a senior living facility, Michael Van Dalsem and Leonard Aube, who were matched through the Senior Companion Program, meet up twice a week — once to attend the Men’s Co ee Group at e Center on Colfax, a community center for LGBTQIA+ Coloradans, and once just to visit.

Aube, who is 83 years old, doesn’t have any family in Colorado. He visits some of the people where he lives, but is dependent on Van Dalsem for rides to e Center on Colfax or to go to Safeway. He can’t travel on his own due to health complications.

“It reminds me that I have something valuable with my time, and that’s important to know that you are valued in some way,” Van Dalsem said. “I enjoy the people. We are good friends.” e Senior Companion Program has become a vital resource for older adults across the country, and its results are documented in studies that look at similar interventions.

“Best friends,” Aube chimed in. “He’s kind of brought me out of my shell,” Van Dalsem added. “He demanded that I talk.” Van Dalsem has one other client who he takes to doctor’s appointments that the client otherwise would have to get to by public transportation.

“What we found is that for people who participated in this peer intervention for one year, which means you were paired with someone with a similar lived experience, we saw reductions in loneliness, depression and anxiety,” Perissinotto said. But larger system changes are needed. e Surgeon General’s advisory laid out a framework to create a national strategy based on six pillars: strengthen social infrastructure, enact pro-connection public policies, mobilize the health sector, reform digital environments, deepen knowledge and cultivate a culture of connection. Yet while there’s a lot of evidence on the negative impacts of isolation and loneliness, there’s less evidence on solutions.

“What we don’t have a lot of evidence on is what works in practice, what works for di erent segments of the population, and how can we scale these innovative solutions?” said Racoosin. “A lot of our e orts now are really focused on that translation piece and supporting organizations, corporations and others to think through how we can not only deploy solutions, but then evaluate them.”

Perissinotto and a colleague, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this year calling attention to loneliness and social isolation and the role of health care professionals—even with limitations like insu cient time and policies—in identifying and treating these challenges.

“Assessing for [social isolation and loneliness] periodically and