Dr Grant Blashki is the lead clinical adviser of the mental health service Beyond Blue. As a GP, he says chronic loneliness is linked with other health issues, too.
"I had a really hard time when I first moved to the mountains, I was very socially isolated for sure," she says. Farm it Forward followed in 2019. Volunteers now tend eight different plots in the mountains, while working to break down social barriers.According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, social isolation is defined as a lack of contact with other people and can involve having a limited social network or living alone.
Blashki says community projects like this are increasingly seen as one solution, by the medical profession."That means, I write down on a piece of paper, like a script, a suggestion that patients join communities." Dr Rosanne Freak-Poli, a life-course epidemiologist from Monash University, says Australia is lagging behind.