Germany appoints a minister to deal with the crisis of loneliness of citizens

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, “Spiegel” weekly wrote in an article: million Germans suffer from loneliness and the recent Corona crisis has aggravated this problem. In Japan and Britain, there have long been responsible ministries. Now the federal government of Germany has put this issue on the agenda.

Spiegel further wrote: Most of the affected people endure their suffering in silence and many of them develop mental and physical illnesses over time. be. In this way, loneliness in Germany becomes more and more a social problem. The isolation of the corona epidemic has increased the difficulties of many people suffering from this problem. So now the German federal government wants to take targeted measures to fight loneliness in Germany. “Lisa Paus”, the German family minister, presents the results of a comprehensive research on this for the first time. Referring to these results, Paus said to the German news agency: “Millions of people in Germany feel lonely.” This feeling has increased significantly during the pandemic. Both older and younger people are affected.

Based on surveys by the Economic and Social Council, the government provides insights into the development of loneliness between 1992 and 2021 – and therefore over a 30-year period. he does. In this study, researchers collected data on loneliness based on age, gender and place of residence in East and West Germany. According to the German Family Ministry, this is the first time that a long-term analysis of people which have been affected by this issue in this country, has been done. “By doing this research, we now have the data we need to take more targeted action,” Paus explained. He emphasized: Loneliness is a “pressing problem” that harms society.

The German federal government launched its strategy against loneliness in December last year, and the current research is part of this strategy. Planned actions include, among others, more public education and the expansion of assistance offers. From June 17 to 23, 2024, a week of action “Together Against Loneliness” will be held to raise awareness about this issue.

This is the first initiative of its kind at the German federal level, according to the ministry. Is. The governments of other countries have taken measures to fight the loneliness of citizens for years. In England and Japan, for example, there have long been separate ministries devoted to the concerns of lonely people.

Now the German Foundation for Patient Support also insists on examining this problem much more closely than before. The foundation stated that loneliness affects all generations. Eugen Bresch, a member of the board of directors of this foundation, told the German news agency: “Maybe this is the biggest widespread disease in Germany.” Loneliness not only affects the mind, but also increasingly leads to physical problems.

He pointed to the measures that have been taken so far to fight this crisis in Germany and said: But the problems It is not solved in this way, so far there have only been individual projects against loneliness. Germany is far from widespread development.

Breich advocated more measures in municipalities to deal with this problem, for example the creation of “offices for the elderly” similar to existing youth welfare offices. A new authority will also have the opportunity to record information from the population, Barish explained. According to him, most of the time, the problem of loneliness remains unknown in people.

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