Table 4.

Recommendations for national strategies to foster social connection and address social isolation and loneliness

Policy and strategy	Make social connection a priority in policy agendas of governments and other organizations. Establish a national strategy and leadership at all levels to track, advance and coordinate policies and programs across agencies or units. Assemble an inter‐agency, cross‐sector coalition to assess and address social implications across all policies and programs. Establish a centralized resource or database for evidence‐based interventions and policies.
Integration within the health system	Prioritize social connection in prevention and integration into treatment in clinical settings. Assess and track risk within the electronic medical records. Adequate training, resources and support for health care providers.
Healthy digital environments	Establish greater transparency and cooperation to independently evaluate drivers of connection and disconnection. Increase accessibility (access, affordability, knowledge) to digital tools and environments with demonstrated benefits. Establish safeguards (laws, regulations, guidelines, autonomy) to reduce risk associated with harmful elements.
Evidence, evaluation, measurement	Creation of a global social connection index to allow for comparisons across nations. Establish consistent national measure of social connection, for population surveillance at a national level. Establish a national research and policy center/institute to coordinate cross‐sector collaboration in research. Establish Grand Challenges in Social Connection Research, and funding to sustain efforts to address them.
Education and awareness	Establish public‐facing national awareness campaigns, ensuring accurate and inclusive messages based on high‐quality evidence. Establish National Health Guidelines for Social Connection (similar to dietary guidelines). Include social connection in public‐facing health educational resources (websites) of major health organizations. Integrate social connection into formal health education curriculum across all educational settings (primary, secondary, post‐secondary, higher education, continuing learning, advanced and continuing education for health professionals). Establish age‐appropriate formal education curriculum and practices to foster social connection skills.
Norms and culture	Media, arts and entertainment, local and national leaders, and others in positions of influence, can model positive behaviors that facilitate connection (e.g., respect, openness, responsiveness, kindness, support) Create routines, habits and programs that reinforce regular social connection within formal (workplace, education) and informal (neighborhoods, recreation and leisure) settings. Strengthen norms, incentives and opportunities to create a culture of service. Establish coalitions and networks to coordinate efforts and share best practices.
Infrastructure	Design physical places and spaces to foster socializing (e.g., public, commercial, recreational, religious). Design should consider features of accessibility and inclusiveness across ages, abilities, and economic circumstances. Evaluate existing infrastructure to identify barriers to social connection. Redesign, reduce or eliminate features of infrastructure that are barriers. Create pro‐social policies, and evaluate existing policies for barriers relevant to infrastructure (e.g., zoning laws, investing in public transportation, housing and desegregation). Reform policies to allow for the use of existing underutilized public spaces (e.g., schools during nights and weekends, churches on weekdays, commercial buildings during off hours) for community social events and gatherings. Develop programs, services and resources (e.g., recreation, volunteer programs, senior centers, community gardens) to support more connected communities.