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Loneliness is a Public Health Emergency We Can’t Afford to Ignore

Today more than ever, we need a policy that takes the significant physical risk of loneliness into account. We must treat it as the public health issue that it is.

The idea of suffering, isolated elderly should no doubt tug at our heartstrings–but public health, like all governmental endeavors, is hemmed in by budgets. And while preventing and treating loneliness is an ethical duty, it’s also an economic decision: the healthcare costs to be saved down the line are immense when we consider the risks loneliness brings to our bodies and brains.

Just as preventative medicine can stave off monumental healthcare bills for issues such as obesity, cancer, and heart disease, preventative loneliness treatment can significantly reduce the national burden of caring for an aging population that suffers from the physical and mental side effects of prolonged isolation.

Read the full byline by Guidehouse’s Lance Robertson, former assistant secretary for aging at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, via Fortune.

Lance Robertson, Partner

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