Counteracting the Effects of Loneliness: Empirical Research and Policy Interventions

This chapter focuses on policy interventions to tackle loneliness and is divided into three main parts. The first part of the chapter showcases results on loneliness interventions based on the EU Loneliness Survey, which collected information about respondents’ awareness of loneliness interventions in their country and their views about the role different actors should play in supporting lonely people. Findings related to social stigma surrounding loneliness and measures used by lonely people to mitigate their feelings of loneliness are also discussed. The second part of the chapter provides an overview of existing loneliness interventions using categorisations proposed by the literature. To gain insight on how loneliness is addressed in practice, this section also presents examples from the EU-wide Mapping of Loneliness Interventions. The third and final part of the chapter tackles the issue of the effectiveness of loneliness interventions. This section is informed by the literature and exchanges with experts and practitioners in the field, and includes a non-exhaustive list of common success factors in effective loneliness interventions.