Loneliness in the digital age – how can pharmacy help?

Consider for a moment the meeting places of today, and how the fabric of social connection has been disrupted.

The office, where many people used to meet work colleagues, is Zoom or Teams. The theatre, where we used to meet friends for wine and popcorn is now Netflix, dating is now Tinder and Bumble, the shopping centre is Amazon, the post office is Outlook or Google, and the library where mums would meet for baby story time is Audible. Even the GP clinics are digital interactions via Mosh, InstantScripts and Medmate.

Despite being the most technologically connected society in history, we are the loneliest.

No one is immune to loneliness and the epidemic of loneliness is being driven by an acceleration of the pace of life and use of technology enmeshed in, or even replacing, every social interaction.

My name is Jenny Kirschner. I am a pharmacist and the founder of PALS -Pharmacy Addressing Loneliness and Social-isolation. I am on a mission to inspire, educate and mobilise the global pharmacy industry to help address loneliness to improve community health and well-being at scale.

Loneliness has been deemed a global priority by the World Health Organisation.

"Loneliness is a subjective, unwelcome or distressing feeling of a lack of connection to other people, along with a desire for more or more satisfying social relationships."¹

It is estimated that about 1/3 of the Australian population experience loneliness. This number is significantly larger than the number of people suffering with Diabetes in Australia.

The robust scientific evidence shows a significant relationship between loneliness and mental health, physical health, cognitive health, health care usage, hospitalisations and mortality. There is also evidence linking loneliness and medication use. To take a deep dive into loneliness, enrol in the World First Pharmacist Training program on Loneliness.

So why is this relevant to pharmacy?

Pharmacists in Australia, as one of the most trusted and frequently accessed health professionals, have a unique and personal relationship with patients. This relationship exists IRL (In Real Life – i.e. face to face). This social capital is a precious commodity in the rapidly evolving digital healthcare landscape where patients are engaging far less in face-to-face interactions and consultations, resulting in an erosion of the nourishing incidental chit chats that occur between patients and health professionals.

Community pharmacy offers a highly accessible network of primary health care delivering quality advice and services, and as such is poised for effective and agile preventive health activities. Pharmacies exist in well dispersed and accessible locations, and often operate over extended hours, seven days a week in urban, rural and remote areas.

Community pharmacy can help to identify at risk patients and screen for loneliness with scope for counselling on the importance of social health as an integral part of healthcare delivery.

We can no longer avoid talking about the loneliness we see in our patients. The time to learn more about loneliness, and take action toward addressing it, is now.

As authentically shared by Pharmacist Ghassoub El Assaad , Founder at Pharmacy Down Under “I have elderly patients that come by on a daily basis not to buy anything, they just want to have a chat. It might be the only genuine social interaction that they may have on that day!

So today when you clock into work, forget about the prescriptions, forget about business “KPIs” and “targets” (just for a moment ) and remember what pharmacy is!

Pharmacy is the fusion of 3 elements:

1) Healthcare,

2) Community and

3) Support

It’s time to remind ourselves of our impact on all these aspects and to make the most of all of our patient interactions today, I assure you, you won’t regret it!”

Join the growing global movement of pharmacy addressing loneliness.

Enrol in the World First Pharmacist Training program on Loneliness

Footnote:

[1] https://www.gilc.global/_files/ugd/410bdf_74fffc2d18984b0e8217288b1b12d199.pdf

More about the Author!

Jenny is a passionate clinical entrepreneur with a mission to inspire, educate and mobilise the pharmacy industry globaly to address loneliness to improve community health and well being at scale.

Jenny has been published in pharmacy journals and magazines and has presented at peak national pharmacy conferences on the topic of loneliness. Jenny has also advocated at a Parliamentary House event championing the pivotal role that pharmacists can play in addressing loneliness.

Jenny is the creator of the World First Pharmacist Training program on Loneliness, which was recently launched in partnership with the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.

Please make sure you CONNECT and FOLLOW Jenny Kirschner TODAY!