Loneliness as a health hazard...

Friends:

I read with interest another in a series of articles over many years on how we as humans do not thrive if we are isolated. (See: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-04-08-isolation08_st_N.htm?csp=34&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20usatoday-NewsTopStories%20(News%20-%20Top%20Stories)&cid=xem-emc-nd)

Even though individualism is rampant in today's society, and we are encouraged to "die with the most toys", there is something fundamentally amiss with this model of behavior. All things are inter-related and inter-dependent, whether you are considering ecosystems or the interaction of communicating substances within the human body. Nothing exists in isolation. There is both biblical and scientific wisdom to support this.

We are engaged in healthcare reform (primarily health insurance reform with a modicum of "care" reform) and much will be debated about what needs to happen in order to "fix" the systems that deliver our "care" (sorry for the apparent overuse of quotation marks). One of the important aspects of the USA Today story for me was the ability for a patient to feel alone while surrounded by hundreds of people each day. This is not unique to hospitals or institutions in general, consider the workplace. However, hospitals should be about caring for the whole person not just their disease.

I think about my own work in intensive care units over the last 20+ years and know this to be true. Anyone who has spent time in a teaching hospital knows about academic rounds where a gaggle of earnest young professionals and a seasoned veteran teacher enter grandly into a patient's room, circle the bed, and begin to talk in an incomprehensible language over the top of the person - as if they don't exist. Talk about lonely!

Thus, one aspect of care improvement is to acknowledge our dependence on one another, and on our need to belong to a group to enhance our health. Whether it is an internet social network, a small group of friends, a 12-step recovery group, a faith community, or a composite of all of these, one thing is for certain (as the old Three Dog Night song implies) "one is the loneliest number that you'll ever do." For a healthier humanity, we need to eliminate all the "ones".

Peace,
Dan