Last week, Connecticut U.S. Senator Chris Murphy proposed the National Strategy for Social Connection Act (NSSCA), a bill to “create a comprehensive national response to epidemic levels of social isolation,” per a statement from Murphy’s office. He was also joined by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in raising the SILO Act (Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults), which specifically aims to combat loneliness among senior citizens.

“Americans are feeling more disconnected than ever, and it’s a full-blown crisis for our democracy when people retreat to their devices and lose sight of what it means to be part of a community,” said Murphy. “Tackling the loneliness crisis is a shared project, and the government’s role is to understand why people feel so angry and alone, and to create a culture and an economy that encourages more social connection.” 

The subject of increased loneliness has been one of particular interest to Murphy for years. Murphy’s statement highlights that both Japan and the United Kingdom have already created their own “Ministers for Loneliness,” for the purpose of battling an issue that Murphy believes is “fueling deaths of despair in adults, record levels of social anxiety in teens, and mass polarization and dysfunction in our politics.”

The NSSCA would create an Office of Social Connection Policy (OSCP) to advise the President on the economic, public health, national security, and environmental impacts of loneliness and social isolation, as well as develop governmental strategies and recommendations for other governmental agencies, to determine how they can integrate their policies in ways that promote community engagement and social connection. The OSCP would create a national strategy for combating loneliness and provide “research-based best-practice guidelines” to the public on how to “better engage and connect within our local communities,” per Murphy’s statement.

“The Office shall establish, maintain, and periodically update an integrated national strategy to improve social connection, ameliorate loneliness, and slow or stop the progression of social disconnection,” reads the bill.

Section 2 of the bill outlines Murphy’s reasoning for the proposal. It highlights the Surgeon General’s 2023 declaration of “an epidemic of loneliness and isolation,” as well as the Surgeon General’s findings that loneliness and social isolation increase the risk of premature death by 26% and 29%, respectively.

“The fraying of the social fabric is directly implicated in the growth of loneliness, decline of civic and religious participation, the disintegration of communities, rising economic inequality and precarity, falling economic mobility, rising rates of depression, anxiety and addiction, diminishing health and life expectancy and rising levels of polarization and radicalization,” reads the bill. “These changes affect all people of the United States, but fall with particular force on the poor and marginalized, on children and adolescents, on individuals residing in economically disadvantaged regions, on veterans and on the elderly, and individuals without a college degree.”

The director of the OSCP would establish “an intergovernmental advisory council” to annually assess the nation’s social connection, conduct and coordinate research, develop pro-social strategies, review the impacts of social disconnection on health, and advise the office director. It would be composed of the OSCP director and representatives of at least 21 other federal departments, as well as at least 14 civilian experts in fields such as healthcare, caregiving, youth leadership, disability rights, veteran services, community action, and LGBTQ advocacy. This council would conduct biannual assessments of the OSCP’s progress.

Lastly, the bill calls for appropriating $5 million annually to the CDC to “conduct or support research on loneliness and social connection,” from 2026 to 2031. The SILO Act proposes that the government provide $62.5 million annually to support area agencies on aging and community-based organizations to address loneliness and social isolation among the elderly. Murphy argues that special attention should be paid to loneliness amongst the elderly, citing research conducted by the University of Michigan, which found that socially isolated seniors face a 45% higher risk of premature death, a 31% greater risk of dementia and a 14% greater risk of Alzheimers.

“Loneliness can be a silent killer for the elderly and people with disabilities and we need to do a lot more to protect these vulnerable groups from social isolation and help them find community,” said Murphy. “The challenge of loneliness isn’t going anywhere and the social connection safety net this bill funds is among the best investments we can make for the mental and physical health of our seniors.”

The funding would specifically go towards organizations’ efforts to train their staff to combat and prevent loneliness and isolation, conduct outreach to those at risk of isolation, develop community-wide interventions to prevent loneliness, connect at-risk individuals to clinical or social supports, and evaluate the effectiveness of the above programs.

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