GROWTH Groups and Relationships to Optimise Wellbeing and HealTH

Social isolation touches all our lives and knows no bounds. It affects the young and old, the rich and poor, and those who are in good and ill health. It also places huge pressures on health services – estimates suggest that around 10 per cent of adults suffer from its debilitating consequences, and that GPs spend around 20 per cent of their time dealing with non-health problems with two thirds of their clients raising issues of social isolation (Caper & Plunkett, 2015).

In Australia, one in four people are lonely, and it is especially problematic for two groups – young people who are transitioning into adulthood, and older people who experience later life transitions that put them at increased risk of chronic disease and disability.

Current approaches to loneliness treat its symptoms or consequences (e.g., depression, addiction), and many clinical approaches targeting these symptoms have limited efficacy.

Time for a new approach

The GROWTH program targets the prevention and management of loneliness, and will pioneer a new integrated, sustainable community-focused approach that leverages UQ’s intervention program, GROUPS 4 HEALTH (G4H), in ways that help people to optimise and manage their access and use of existing community resources (e.g., social prescribing initiatives).

Working with academic and community partners who support young people and older adults GROWTH aims to empower people to manage loneliness when it presents, but also to prevent its occurrence which is needed to reduce the health burden and cost of loneliness at scale.