Lonliness and Isolation is an Epidemic

The US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, cited an epidemic of loneliness and isolation in the USA, with health risks as detrimental as smoking daily. The Surgeon General's Advisory issued a statement about what we can do about this disease of disconnection.

Three out of the six recommendations made by the Surgeon General include areas that the Oregon Health and Education Collaborative and its Upstream Initiative are addressing: 1. strengthen social infrastructure, 2. enact pro-connection policies, 3. mobilize the health sector, and 4. create a culture of connection.

We know that YOU are also actively working to strengthen, enact, mobilize and create. Consider this your shout out! What you are doing is important and urgent and you are not doing it alone. We are in this together and the more we connect and lift one another up, the more we reduce loneliness and isolation.

This is what the Upstream Initiative is about. Together we can repair the deteriorating social fabric by addressing the social determinants of health. We are inviting Oregon communities to submit a Letter of Interest to be a Design Pilot and co-imagine a First 1000 Days Child Success Model, that would stabilize and support the new parent, the infant, the family, in a way that relies on an integrated network of community based organizations, healthcare providers, service providers, education institutions, individuals and families, and more. This "First 1000 Days package" will be co-imagined locally, with incredible potential to be replicated around the state. The very recommendations that the US Surgeon General has put forth will be addressed by the design pilots.

Keep your eye out for an upcoming release of a recorded conversation with Dr. David Willis, Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Policy and leader of the Nurture Connection. In this conversation he describes concrete ways that we can counter loneliness through Early Relational Health and why the First 1000 Days is an incredibly potent time

Sincerely,
Chelsea