Germany mulls the setting up a national Ministry for Loneliness
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Euronews reports that Angela Merkel’s CDU party is suggesting that the German capital arms itself with an Official Commissioner for Loneliness.
One in ten people living in Berlin, home to over 3,5 million people, is reportedly affected by loneliness, with the epidemic of particular concern for the elderly: a study by Ruhr University Bochum showed that one in five Germans over 85 felt lonely.
In the German capital, half of all households are made up of only one person – and at least 300 people die in their apartments every year without anyone noticing.
Euronews adds that this issue has the potential to become a full-blown public health crisis – after all, studies show that, in the long term, being lonely increases mortality just as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The Red Cross has even gotten to the point of calling it “a hidden epidemic”.
German lawmakers have already set up some creative solutions. Back in 2017, it set up a hotline for lonely seniors who were spending the winter holidays on their own, and the idea of following in the United Kindom’s footsteps by setting up a national Ministry for Loneliness had been tossed around.
