The time is overdue for action: the Public Health Report reports a steady increase in young adults with mental illness. 41 per cent of the participants in the Students’ health and well-being survey state that they have few or no friends, and the perspective report highlights how being an outsider in Norway is not sustainable for the Norwegian workforce. The trinity of outsiderness, loneliness and inactivity weaves a dark web that affects all ages, walks of life and life stages, and which exacts a high price. Both for the individual and for society. Dropout from studies, working life and democratic participation; increased risk of disability and lifestyle diseases. The consequences are great. Absence is also the biggest single factor for radicalisation. At the same time, the world’s longest-running survey of factors for human happiness shows that what most influences the possibility of a long and good life is social activity and close relationships. The arrows point in the direction that increased access to communities is the measure with the greatest potential for improving public health and social economic savings. So why don’t we have our own Minister for Communities in Norway? Ministers of Loneliness It may immediately sound like a construction from an extra cozy fictional universe with its own minister of community. But it’s nothing entirely new. Our neighbors in the UK were the first to come up with a Minister of loneliness in 2018 after then Prime Minister Theresa May declared loneliness to be “one of the biggest public health challenges of our time”. After Great Britain came Japan, which in 2021 appointed Tetsushi Sakamoto as Minister of Loneliness. Then to counter what Japan saw as a serious and disturbing trend. It may seem obvious that it is health-promoting to be more together in meaningful activity. But there are many who refuse to participate socially in society today. Need for a national strategy We experience daily through our works how little is needed to trigger an increased quality of life through active communities. But we also see the size of the need and how little coherent the effort is. We are calling for a national strategy and a minister who can collect, analyze and coordinate what already exists of measures, offers and meeting places. A minister who can raise the lack of access to community to the level it deserves. And in the process build a more interconnected society, at a time when we are experiencing increasingly higher pressure from influences from outside our national borders. A Norwegian Community Minister does not have to start from scratch. From the first day in his new position, the minister can make a phone call to his British colleague, Stuart Andrew, and draw on their experiences. The work in the UK has so far culminated in a 5-year report, which states that loneliness and alienation can only be solved in cooperation between government bodies, business, voluntary work and citizens. Better overview and coordination will speed up the transition from investigations and studies to practice, by facilitating the right offer to reach those who need it most. It will also ensure the foundation for the most effective preventive measures possible. Big savings in attitude change It is a paradox today that there is great acceptance of making money from sick people, while there is to a lesser extent a culture for proactive measures to keep people healthy. Mental ill health alone is estimated to cost Norwegian society over 330 billion a year, while more and more research shows that preventing illness is far more profitable than trying to repair it. For every kroner invested in preventive health, we get over 14 kroner back in savings. It is a return that deserves a far greater investment than the modest 3 out of 100 health kroner that today goes towards preventive health. A community minister will be able to set the agenda and drive the changes in attitude that are needed to reduce prejudices against actively seeking community. It must become more socially accepted to build new acquaintances in our lives. These are prejudices that today prevent many people from taking active steps in their own social destinies. Good genes are nice, but joy is even better. It is easy to dismiss loneliness and alienation as a natural part of the human lot, as perhaps it has always been for many. But the fact is that in 2024 it does not have to be like this. There are more than enough friends and communities out there for everyone, in an age with more and more tools to find those who are also looking for us. The challenge is to jointly lower the threshold for participation. We invite the whole of Norway to participate in a charity to change the way we talk about and counter the lack of social community. Published 26/08/2024, at 12.44 p.m
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Norway needs a Minister for Communities – Speech
