Chapters

Chapter 1: Framework Chapter 2: Resources & Results Chapter 3: Work With Us Chapter 4: Network & Champions

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Chapter 1

A Community Framework to End Chronic Loneliness

By impacting the Conditions for Belonging, we will see a shift towards belonging and reducing loneliness at population levels. If we create positive conditions for people in our communities with Presence, Access, Culture and Place we are on the path towards ending chronic loneliness.

People need someone, someplace and something to belong to. The Community Framework enables the conditions for belonging through:

Click the factors to learn more

Presence

In this community, all people have opportunities to socialize, be vulnerable, express their feelings, feel accepted, feel respected, feel their presence matters, and feel that their humanity is reciprocated (recognized, reflected back, responded to). They have people with whom they may share beliefs, experiences or understandings.

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Access

Illustration of a city bus commuting down a road

Access

In this community, all people are able to access experiences, events, groups, individuals, institutions and environments that contribute positively to their sense of belonging, the quality of their social interactions and the development of social connections. They feel that they have the means, permission, and ability to choose to develop satisfying connections and relationships.

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Cultures

Illustration of four people looking out towards the sun from a park

Cultures

In this community, cultures are factored into how people are supported in experiencing Presence and Access. Culture is also the means by which Presence and Access (even Place) are promoted and supported.

Cultures encompass the stories, ideas, images, customs, values, beliefs and practices that exert influence on people.

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Place

People walking down a path in an urban landscape with trees, benches, and a beautiful sunny glow

Place

The physical environs of this community support Presence, Access and cultural differences in how people need to experience Presence and Access.

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Ending Chronic Loneliness

It is a community algorithm applied at a population level for belonging:

(

Presence

Access

)

Cultures

Place

Illustration of people gathered in a park

Describing the Conditions for Belonging

The Solutions for Belonging Framework proposes that Belonging is enabled through Presence, Access, Cultures and Place. This section will explain exactly what we mean by each of these conditions.

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Resources

Describing the Conditions for Belonging

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Summary

The Solutions for Belonging Framework proposes that Belonging is enabled through Presence, Access, Cultures and Place. This section will explain exactly what we mean by each of these conditions.

Presence

Access

In this community, all people are able to access experiences, events, groups, individuals, institutions and environments that contribute positively to their sense of belonging, the quality of their social interactions, and the development of social connections. They feel that they have the means, permission, and ability to choose to develop satisfying connections and relationships.

Cultures

Cultures encompass the stories, ideas, images, customs, values, beliefs and practices that exert influence on people.

Place

The physical environs of this community support Presence, Access and cultural differences in how people need to experience Presence and Access.

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Population Based Strategy: Food for Thought

"Population-based approaches to mental health" are nonclinical interventions aimed at improving mental health outcomes for groups defined by geography or demographics. These strategies focus on system-level changes, policies, and environmental factors, requiring a societal shift and further research to ensure effectiveness in reducing mental health disparities.

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Resources

Population Based Strategy: Food for Thought

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Summary

Although much has been written about the notion of population mental health and the closely related concept of public mental health, a concrete definition of “population-based approaches to mental health” does not exist. Drawing from scholarship about population mental health, as well as that related to “population health” terminology, we define population-based approaches to mental health as nonclinical interventions and activities intended to improve mental health outcomes, and the determinants of these outcomes, among a group of individuals that are defined by shared geography, sociodemographic characteristics, or source of clinical services utilization [i.e. hospital, health care system].

Population-based interventions must be nonclinical and thus exclude direct mental health services (e.g., psychotherapies and pharmacological therapies) to individual patients. [...] Health care system-level interventions that address mental health, however, can be considered population-based because the intervention is at the system, as opposed to the clinical, level. Social, economic, and environmental policies are also considered population-based interventions because they affect groups of people simultaneously, and psychiatric epidemiology studies indicate that a wide range of public policies affect mental health.

Widespread implementation of population-based approaches to mental health is likely to require a collective shift in thinking at the societal level—from a view that conceptualizes mental health as an individual issue that is exclusively within the purview of psychologists and psychiatrists to one that conceptualizes mental health as a public health issue that actors and organizations across all sectors have a responsibility to address. Structural changes related to financing, training, and accreditation are also likely needed to institutionalize population-based approaches to mental health across sectors. More research is needed to better understand the impacts of population-based approaches to mental health to ensure they are effective and reduce, not exacerbate, disparities in mental health problems between socially disadvantaged and advantaged groups.

Public policies that are not implemented with the explicit intent of addressing mental health, but reduce the incidence of traumatic events and limit exposure to psychosocial stressors, might have the greatest impacts on population mental health. The highest-quality evidence about the impacts of population-based approaches to mental health comes from natural experiments of public policies and cluster randomized-controlled trials of built environment interventions.

Excerpts from Population-Based Approaches to Mental Health. Emphasis added.

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Chapter 2

Learning More from our Work: Resources & Results

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