High and rising numbers of various health problems and loneliness among students and employees require solutions: The consequences of loneliness are a threat to individual well-being and social cohesion. In addition, chronic loneliness is associated with a number of health risks such as lack of sleep, susceptibility to addiction, depression and anxiety.
The need to promote connectedness and social participation has been recognized by different institutions and effective strategies, so-called good practices, have been developed. However, holistic, sustainable and systematically transferable approaches that also address current and evolving challenges such as digitalization, climate change and the effects of the covid-19 pandemic are still lacking: proactive strategies, specific tools, manuals including emergency plans and low-threshold participation formats.
Together with the health insurance Techniker Krankenkasse, the pilot project therefore aims to
- better understand loneliness and associated risk factors,
- to model mechanisms and processes,
- test target group-specific approaches to prevent and reduce loneliness,
- to test approaches for tailoring interventions,
- to communicate the findings to other universities and
- to make the developments available nationwide.
The findings will be made available nationwide and serve as a good practice example ("role model") for the reduction and prevention of loneliness at German higher education institutions.
In addition to promoting social connectedness and the sustainable reduction of loneliness, the pilot project focuses on two areas: Diversity management and connectedness to nature. The interaction between diversity management and loneliness is being explicitly researched in a university context for the first time in this pilot project. The potential of connectedness to nature and possibly digital applications will be examined co-creatively. For example, the importance of positive social engagement for climate initiatives to promote connectedness and social participation will be focused on. The results provide a new understanding of the development of loneliness and also enable a comparison to be made with representative nationwide data (TK survey December 2024) and to act as a benchmark (comparator).
Techniker Krankenkasse is funding the pilot project with the beginning of February 2025.
