Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1478813
13 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 SEPTEMBER 2022 OPINION Revisiting our rituals IN 2019 the Faculty for So- cial Wellbeing conducted ground-breaking research which revealed that 43% of people over the age of 11 suffered from lone- liness. This study by Prof. Marilyn Clark, Jamie Bonnici and myself created waves in our commu- nity. At the time we commit- ted ourselves to keep doing this study every three years. The data for 2022 paints a wor- rying trend. At the moment we are in the process of trying to an- alyse the full data set but the in- itial findings are quite shocking. We are witnessing an increase in loneliness of more than 11% and another increase of 2.9% in the severely lonely since 2019. What the 2022 study has con- firmed is that 'loneliness' is a major social issue in the propor- tions of an epidemic, which is affecting our communities at the core. The 2019 study allowed the faculty to place the issue of lone- liness on the national agenda. It also helped steer the faculty to research other areas like 'solitary conferment' and 'deinstitution- alisation' - subjects that have attracted the attention of many, including parliament. Neverthe- less, it saddens me to say that not much has been done in terms of direct policy action. Some shocking data extrapo- lated from our 2022 study shows that 7.4% (26,862 persons) rat- ed their coping ability as 'not so good'. Results reveal that just over a tenth of respondents (10.5% - 38,115 persons) do not feel positive about their life. Two out of 10 of the respondents (20.8% - 75,504 persons) expe- rience a general sense of empti- ness. Almost one in 10 of respond- ents (9.6% - 34,848 persons) revealed that they do not feel that there are plenty of people they can lean on when they have problems. More than one in 10 respond- ents (13.8% - 50,094 persons) reported that they do not have a close friend. When participants were asked whether they miss having a really close friend, 29% (105,270 persons) replied with a 'yes' - this figure was higher amongst those aged between 11 and 19 (39.2%). A further 13.7% (49,731 per- sons) do not feel that they can call on their friends when in need and 16.6% (60,258 persons) of respondents do not feel that there are many people they can trust completely. The feeling of not having enough friends or acquaintances was more commonly reported by participants who did not feel a strong sense of belonging in their neighbourhood. Only 5.3% of those with a very strong sense of neighbourhood belonging and 6.3% of those with a fairly strong sense of neighbourhood belong- ing, felt that they did not have enough friends and acquaint- ances. Meanwhile, not having enough friends and acquaint- ances was reported by 13% of those who consider their neigh- bourhood belonging to be not very strong, and the figure was 17.8% of those with a 'not at all strong' sense of neighbourhood belonging. To top it up, an estimated 198,198 (54.6%) persons feel lonely to a degree or other. If this is not worrying, I really don't know what is! As a country we urgently need to walk the talk. The evi- dence-based data is, from where I stand, pointing towards cata- clysmic levels. The main solution I find for this problem is that people need to return to rituals – rituals are our security and with a society which is becoming ever more individualistic and secular this void is creating problems. People, now more than ever, tend to live the challenges they are facing on their own and cut- ting off (or being cut off) from others is leaving enormous scars. Other tangible actions could in- clude more widespread access to talk therapy; closer work with GPs, who can indicate physi- cal ailments that are possibly a result of loneliness and/or vice versa; improved coordination between services such as gov- ernment's LEAP, the Church's Djakonija and Soup Kitchens; bringing to life a national poli- cy and strategy on suicide idea- tion and prevention; developing a national policy and strategy on loneliness; contemplating a change in our economic model; setting up of both a commission- er and a parliamentary secretary on loneliness. Loneliness is costing the coun- try a great deal of money. The 'excuse' I see being thrown at us is that we blame it on COV- ID-19. If we do that, our analysis would be minimalistic. Even if it was the case (which I don't think so) it also means that not enough work was done to address the post-COVID era, something I have been saying for the last 18 months The COVID-19 pandemic is a reality that 'simply' exposed our social weaknesses. It brought to the surface issues like a lack of solid community services and the reality that families are drift- ing apart. It showed that new family models are not given the necessary support to function ef- fectively and exposed ineffective local councils. It exposed people who are over-dedicated to their work, leading to a drop in vol- unteering. COVID exposed and fuelled a growth in poverty, the risk of social exclusion and the number of suicides and suicide ideation. But I predict that the statistics we are revealing in this loneli- ness study wouldn't have been very different without COV- ID-19. If this situation doesn't call for urgent action, I really don't know what does. This study captured Maltese citizens. So far, the estimated 20% of our population which is foreign and the thousands that reside in institutional care are not being bagged by this data which I foresee would have given us even higher numbers. The sur- vey was carried out through tele- phone interviews, with a sample size of 572 individuals. Research was conducted from the age of 11 years upwards, with a confidence interval of +/- 4.1%. The data was collected in July 2022. Andrew Azzopardi Prof. Andrew Azzopardi is Dean, faculty for Social Wellbeing