The Surgeon General has created a Framework for a National Strategy to Advance Social Connection. This details the critical and actionable next steps that individuals, communities, organizations, and governments can take to foster social connection.
According to the resources created by the Surgeon General’s office, social isolation among older adults alone accounts for an estimated $6.7 billion in excess Medicare spending annually, largely due to increased hospital and nursing facility spending. They added that social connection is an important social determinant of health, and more broadly, of community well-being, including (but not limited to) population health, community resilience when natural hazards strike, community safety, economic prosperity, and representative government.
The focus areas of the framework include the following: