California's San Mateo County becomes the 1st to recognise loneliness as public health emergency in US
San Mateo County recognises loneliness as a health emergency, i.e. “a problem that has been building for decades," but worsened with COVID.
Getting ‘the blues’ may be pushed aside as something trivialising elsewhere, but not in San Mateo County of California. This US county is now become the first one to have declared loneliness a public health emergency.
Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, the county's Board of Supervisors sat down to a unanimous vote on Tuesday, officially recognising the issue as a health crisis. With the declaration now in place, the county will reach out for different ways to tackle it. While no funds have been announced to deal with the crisis yet, this move will work as an official conversation starter for it to be addressed efficiently.
About San Mateo County's vote to declare loneliness a health emergency
The Board of Supervisors' VP, David Canepa, highlighted that this development will promote the validation of residents' experiences. Further in his statement, he opened up about how this will assist in getting “people out of the corners”, in addition to reminding them that they're not alone.
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Canepa added that this measure came as a follow-up consequence inspired by the UK and Japan's decisions of appointing national ministers for the crisis. Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy, who released his advisory on the matter in May to emphasise the importance of social connection, also took to his X (formerly Twitter) profile on February 2 to applaud the county's initiative.
Dr Murthy had also reminded back then that though the problem had existed in the country for decades, it only worsened during the COVID pandemic. Canepa also took into account the large section of older residents who were subjected to severe isolation during the pandemic.
Taking yet another progressive step forward, Canepa is also addressing a letter to the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom. In this letter, he extends his hope for a new ministerial post to be created for this epidemic to be dealt with on a bigger scale in addition to the county-wide stance.
Its approval would be a progressive step towards confronting the overall mental health crisis. The county's decision is merely the first step in the right direction.