Blogs, podcasts and presentations

The theme of Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 was 'loneliness' and several of our members create short videos about their research on this topic.

Dr Josie Millar - Impact of loneliness in OCD

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Yung-Chia Hsueh - The effectiveness off place-based interventions to address loneliness and mental health

Living with mental health problems during COVID-19: how does it feel? Mental Elf, August 2021

Watch short COVIDeos about how the UKRI mental health networks, including LSIMHRN, responded to the pandemic. 

Loneliness in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic: All the lonely people, where [in Canada] do they all come from? Heather McClelland, Mental Elf Service, May 2021.

COVID-19 exposed rampant loneliness in America. Can housing design combat it? Andreas Tjeldflaat, Fast Company, March 2021.

Emerging Together: The Tackling Loneliness Network Action Plan, UK Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport, May 2021.

COVID-19 exposed rampant loneliness in America. Can housing design combat it? Andreas Tjeldflaat, Fast Company, March 2021.

Updates from the COVID Social Study including what has been learned one year on.

Quality of life at home Exploring people’s perceptions of where they live before and during lockdown, Quality of Life Foundation, August 2020.

Updates from the COVID Social Study.

Updates from the COVID Social Study including what has been learned one year on.

How has COVID affected wellbeing across the world? What Works Wellbeing blog, Alexander Gamerdinger, January 2021.

Blog from Network member Merryn Gott and colleagues on their new research study into the impact of COVID-19 on older people in New Zealand.

January update: The psychological impact of COVID-19, COVID-Minds blog, Janaury 2021.

What helped the UK cope with the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns? Deborah Hardoon, What Works Wellbeing blog, January 2021.

Lockdown loneliness: who is lonely before and during the pandemic? Mental Elf blog by Network ECR Aggelos Stamos.

Reflections on a review of the psychological impact of quarantine by Dr Alexandra Pitman and Dr Michael Bloomfield 

Blog on COVID 19 and Loneliness Crisis by network member and historian: Dr Fred Cooper

Understanding the impact of the pandemic on people with mental ill health, Medical Research Council blog by Gordon Johnston, a peer researcher with lived experience of mental ill health, and a co-applicant on the University of York’s Optimising Wellbeing during Self-isolation (OWLS) project – a project recently funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

6 months since lockdown began: How we’re continuing to inform during the pandemic blog from ONS by Liz McKeown & Darren Morgan, September 2020.

Loneliness Hasn't Increased Despite Pandemic, Research Finds. What Helped? blog by Joanne Silberner, NPR, July 2020.

What helped people and communities cope during Covid? blog from What Works Wellbeing by Jules Evans, October 2020.

Mental Health of Children and Young People in the Pandemic blog from ONS by Tim Vizard, October 2020.

How does loneliness affect people with substance use disorders? blog from What Works Wellbeing, written by Isabella Ingram, September 2020.

Dealing with Loneliness during the Pandemic by Shyamal Shah, member of the Network Coproduction Group

COVID-19: The Threat to Trust in Medical Services and Interpersonal Trust by Professor Ken Rotenberg, Keele University

Connecting with others during COVID 19: Older adults' use of social media and visual tools by Dr Gemma Wilson, Northumbria University

The role of technology in connecting people during the pandemic By Professor John Vines, Northumbria University

Banished: The roots of loneliness in mental health, Amy Pollard, Centre for Mental Health blog and podcast, September 2021.

Re-visioning male suicide through a social determinants lens, Rob Whitley, BMC On Health blog, August 2021.

LSIMHRN Coordinator Ellie Pearce spoke to the charity No Panic about mental health & loneliness - watch the video here.

Is your environment making you lonely? Erin Peavey & Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Psychology Today.

At work, in the lonely city, Shaun Matthews, Office Lab.

Are we facing a mental health pandemic? Tim Vizard and Theordore Joloza, Office of National Statistics, May 2021.

Summer loneliness and mental health: The time to act is now, Rob Whitley, Psychology Today, April 2021.

Victimisation and loneliness: who is more likely to become lonely? Lydia Munns, Ada Kaluzna, Margaux Liebmann, Tala Koren and Chengcheng Ke.

Is your environment making you lonely? Erin Peavey & Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Psychology Today.

At work, in the lonely city, Shaun Matthews, Office Lab.

Are we facing a mental health pandemic? Tim Vizard and Theordore Joloza, Office of National Statistics, May 2021.

Blog from Dr Stephen Ginn on prison and loneliness.

Blog from Talen Wright  on loneliness, social isolation and mental health in the transgender and gender diverse community

The Pain of Loneliness and the Pleasure of Solitude blog in Psychology Today by Rob Whitley, October 2020.

Blog from Network members the Campaign to End Loneliness on their loneliness & bereavement webinar.

Blog on research on loneliness in a senior housing community that points to risk factors and potential protective factors.

Opinion piece from Brian Nyatanga on ‘Social prescribing: combating loneliness is everyone’s business’ in the British Journal of Community Nursing.

Blog on workplace loneliness in the USA.

Network coordinator Ellie Pearce was interviewed by Nordic Cuddle, who are members of the Network, on her research into social relationships.

Lancet article on Professor Peter Fonagy, chief executive of the Anna Freud Centre, about his experience of loneliness and mental health issues, and his career.

Office of National Statistics blog on personal wellbeing.

Lived experience blog from network member The Loneliness Lab.

Blog from network member The Loneliness Lab on the real estate sector.

Blog on loneliness, writing and cities.

Blogs from the Pathologies of Solitude network.

Co-Ray (2022) Evidence Brief: Evidence-informed recommendations for supporting young people with feeling lonely, isolated and disconnected. Briefing written by Dr Rebecca Watson (University of Oxford), Elise Sellars (University of Oxford), Professor Pamela Qualter  (University of Manchester), Dr Maria Loades (University of Bath),  Professor Roz Shafran (UCL), Dr Ellie Pearce (UCL), Dr Alexandra Pitman (UCL), Dr Galit Geulayov (University of Oxford), Dr Ola Demkowicz (University of Manchester), Dr Lindsay Dewa (Imperial College London), Dr Cathy Creswell (University of Oxford).

New blog from Katey Warran about her LSIMHRN Plus Project Dance/Connect.

Youth Loneliness: Learnings from the Great Winter Get-together, Su Moore, Connection Coalition, March 2022.

8 Top Tips for Tackling Loneliness, Melissa Lonie, Young Scot blog.

Sam Fardghassemi talks to Lizzie Mitchell about his research on loneliness in young people in this Research Zone podcast.

Blog on research on how play on streets reshapes our relationships with streets by Network member Alison Stenning.

Place based interventions to address loneliness & mental health, Ginny Yung Hseuh - Video 

Can changes to features of the local neighbourhood improve loneliness and mental health? Hsueh and Pitman 2022, Campaign to End Loneliness Blog

Tackling Loneliness through the built environment, Hsueh, Y.-C, Featured in Campaign to End Loneliness report 2022. 

Tech in the Dock: Should AI chatbots be used to address the nation's loneliness problem? Louis Stupple-Harris, NESTA.
 

Loneliness today and tomorrow - why the APPG on tackling loneliness matters, Robin Hewings, Campaign to End Loneliness, December 2021.

Ageing better in Camden - what we learned about tackling loneliness before and during Covid-19, Annable Collins & Rob Francis, Campaign to End Loneliness guest blog, August 2021.

Loneliness linked to mid-life depression: can tackling loneliness help prevent depression in older people? Kate Adlington, Tia Urgasova, Hana Afrah, Magdalena Tomaskova, and Olubunmi Funmilayo Kusoro, Mental Elf, May 2021.

Townscapes: the value of social infrastructure report Tom Kelsey & Michael Kenny, University of Cambridge Bennett Institute for Public Policy, May 2021.

Architecture helped me heal. So I helped create a new guide to fight loneliness, Paty Rios, HappyCity, May 2021.

How community and culture can help reduce loneliness in the workplace, Clare Bailey, Savills, April 2021.

Don't mention the 'L' word: should we be talking about loneliness, or tackling it by stealth? Bianca Rosetti, Bristol Ageing Better, writing for the Campaign to End Loneliness guest blog, May 2021.

Summer loneliness and mental health: The time to act is now, Rob Whitley, Psychology Today, April 2021.

How community and culture can help reduce loneliness in the workplace, Clare Bailey, Savills, April 2021.

Architecture helped me heal. So I helped create a new guide to fight loneliness, Paty Rios, HappyCity, May 2021.

The social biome: how to build nourishing friendships - and banish loneliness, Moya Sarner, The Guardian, March 2021.

How community and culture can help reduce loneliness in the workplace, Clare Bailey, Savills, April 2021.

Promising Approaches Revisited: Effective action on loneliness in later life report, Campaign to End Loneliness, by Kate Jopling, October 2020.

Blog from the Campaign in End Loneliness on the launch of their new report on psychological approaches to addressing loneliness.

Blog describing six insights into navigating the WHO decade of healthy ageing, including addressing loneliness and mental ill-health.

Blog from Blue Zones on 5 habits to combat loneliness.

The Conversation blog on how ‘third spaces’ can help alleviate loneliness in cities.

Opinion piece from Professor Peter Fonagy, Head of UCL Psychology & Language Sciences ,on how wide social networks can help shield people from mental disorder.

VAMHN ran a fantastic series of lunchtime webinars for Early Career Researchers and you can watch recordings of their previous webinars on various topics including 'How to engage with the media' and 'How to engage with policy'.

MQ Open Mind podcast presented by Professor Rory O’Connor and Craig Perryman interviewing Dr Alexandra Pitman, Co-lead of the LSIMH research network; recorded for the 2022 Mental Health Awareness Week to mark the theme of loneliness.

Deborah Morgan discusses her research on social isolation and loneliness in later life in this podcast from the Centre for Ageing and Dementia Research, Swansea University.

Short film about preventing isolation and loneliness in older people from the Community Advance Project.

Recordings and recap of the Foundation on Social Connection's event 'Conversations on Belonging, Connection & Wellbeing'.

Podcast for the UCL Institute of Mental Health about the work of the Loneliness and Social Isolation in Mental Health research network in 2020; interviews by Ellie Pearce, Network Co-ordinator with network members Sonia Johnson, Mary Birken, Beverley Chipp, Bryn Lloyd-Evans, Roz Shafran, and Alexandra Pitman. Produced by Maria Thomas, UCL Institute of Mental Health. https://soundcloud.com/ucl-mental-health/ucl-mental-health-podcast-loneliness-and-mental-health

Ellie Pearce spoke about her research on addressing loneliness in 16-24 year olds for The Research Zone podcast hosted by Lizzie Mitchell, who is an expert by experience and aims to make make mental health research accessible for young people.

Sam Fardghassemi spoke about his research on loneliness in 16-24 year olds for The Research Zone podcast hosted by Lizzie Mitchell, who is an expert by experience and aims to make make mental health research accessible for young people.

Co-Production Group member Jackie Hardy took part in a Mental Elf podcast about lived experience research along with Mary Birken, Merle Schlief and Tamar Jeynes.

Lonel(i)ness podcast, produced by JaJa Muhammad from Broccoli Productions.

Road to Resilience: Only the Lonely, podcast with Dr Louise Hawkley.

Is social disconnection comparable to smoking? Julianne Holt-Lunstad, TEDx talk, May 2021.

Exploring Loneliness podcast series from the Campaign to End Loneliness, which focus on different aspects of loneliness including bereavement, community and psychology.

Ending loneliness in Australia and New Zealand webinar recording hosted by The Australia Institute and featuring Holly Walker from The Helen Clark Foundation and Australian Labor MP Andrew Giles, co-chair of the cross-party group on ending loneliness in the Australian Federal Parliament.

Music, making connections, and mental health: insights from the Carer's Music Fund podcast, what Works Wellbeing podcast, April 2021.

Podcast from Network member Gemma Wilson on her team’s research on older adults’ use of technology for social connection.

Let's Talk Mental Health II-second series of short videos discussing different perspectives (museums, technology, architecture, genetics, arts & health) of mental health.

Nesta 'Future Curious' episode on loneliness and technology.

#LetsTalkLoneliness Podcast explores different ways loneliness can impact you and offers some tips on how you can help yourself and others through personal stories. Is anybody out there? podcast series, The Connectery.

We don't have to fight loneliness alone Worklife podcast, Adam Grant, April 2020.

Presentation by Professor Sonia Johnson- Loneliness and mental health- is there a missed opportunity to intervene?

Presentation by Professor Sonia Johnson on Loneliness and mental health given at the Australian National University in June 2020

How living alone, loneliness and lack of emotional support link suicide and self-harm, Yutung Ng, Mental Elf blog, March 2022.

What's the best approach to managing social disability in young people with emerging severe mental illness? Zoe Hunter & Derek Tracy, Mental Elf blog, March 2022.

Do experiences of loneliness differ across the lifespan? Gemma Wilson-Menzfeld and Alison Osborne, Mental Elf blog, January 2022.

How are loneliness, social isolation and frailty linked with age? Clarissa Giebel, Mental Elf blog, December 2021.

Loneliness "from the outside": how are lonely young people perceived by others? Phoebe Mckenna-Plumley, Mental Elf blog, Novemebr 2021.

Isolation and loneliness in women living with perinatal depression: how can we heal our dislocated self and relationships? Jacqueline Kent-Marvick, Mental Elf blog, September 2021. This blog discusses a paper by one of our funded Plus Projects, the Mums Alone project.

Living with mental health problems during COVID-19: how does it feel? Anjara Greedharee, Mental Elf blog, August 2021, discusses Gillard, S, Dare, C, Hardy, J. et al. (2021) Experiences of living with mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK: a coproduced, participatory qualitative interview study, which was co-authored by members of LSIMHRN.

Loneliness in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic: All the lonely people, where [in Canada] do they all come from? Heather McClelland, Mental Elf Service, May 2021.

Loneliness linked to mid-life depression: can tackling loneliness help prevent depression in older people? Kate Adlington, Tia Urgasova, Hana Afrah, Magdalena Tomaskova, and Olubunmi Funmilayo Kusoro, Mental Elf, May 2021.

Victimisation and loneliness: who is more likely to become lonely? Lydia Munns, Ada Kaluzna, Margaux Liebmann, Tala Koren and Chengcheng Ke.Playing on uneven playing fields: low income, parental stress and maternal depression, Mental Elf blog, Aggelos Stamos. March 2021

Dementia and loneliness: prevalence and determinants for people living in the UK, Mental Elf blog, Rosie Mansfield, January 2021.

Can reducing loneliness help to alleviate or prevent anxiety or depression in young people? Mental Elf blog by Network member Anton Krall and coordinator Ellie Pearce, December 2020. This blog includes a short video and a podcast about our recent Wellcome Trust report on loneliness as an active ingredient in interventions to reduce anxiety and depression in 14-24 year-olds, which also involved Network joint-lead Sonia Johnson, Network Co-investigator Roz Shafran and Network member Gerhard Andersson.

Loneliness and the psychosis continuum: Can loneliness be a target for mental health services? Posted by Lauri Hare-Duke, 5 Feb 2020.

Lockdown loneliness: who is lonely before and during the pandemic? Mental Elf blog by Network ECR Aggelos Stamos.

Mental Elf blog by Network member Laurie Hare-Duke on a meta-analysis by Chau and colleagues (2019) examining the association between loneliness and psychotic symptoms.

Younger mums may be at higher risk of mental health problems #ESMI. Posted by Jennifer Burgess, 23 September 2019

Loneliness and sedentary behaviour: time to take a stand? Posted by Timothy Matthews, Molly Bird, Hannah Cocker, 21 June 2019

Can interventions help to improve social functioning in youth at risk of psychosis? Posted by Carla McEnery, 12 March 2019

Social connectedness and mental health: measures and conceptual framework Posted by Jingyi Wang, 3 December 2018

Do you have my back? Perceived social support, loneliness, and its impact on mental health outcomes. Posted by Michelle Lim, 26 November 2018 

How can we reduce the toll of loneliness in older adults? Helen Saul, What Works Centre for Wellbeing blog, January 2022.

What psychological interventions have an impact on mental wellbeing? Joep Van Agteren, What Works Wellbeing, May 2021.

Places, spaces, people and wellbeing: Community hubs and green spaces, What Works Wellbeing report, April 2021.

Putting wellbeing into policy: where to begin? What Works Wellbeing blog, Jennifer Wallace, Ben Thurman and Hannah Ormston from Carnegie UK Trust, January 2021.

Putting kindness at the heart of community planning What Works Wellbeing blog, Ben Thurman, December 2020.

Blog from What Works Wellbeing on how home design can impact our mental health, which seems very apt given our recent webinar on built environment approaches to reducing loneliness/social isolation and improving mental health!

What Works Wellbeing blog on ‘Online creativity groups and mental wellbeing’, exploring the evidence gaps on virtual creativity.

What Works Wellbeing Blog on the importance of considering family wellbeing alongside individual and community wellbeing.

What Works Wellbeing blog on why nuance is needed in evaluating wellbeing measures.

What Works Wellbeing blog on best practice for planning & evaluating a co-design projects.

What Works Wellbeing blog on a new project looking at how to measure wellbeing.

What Works Wellbeing blog on experiencing loneliness as a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnicity person.

What Works Wellbeing blog on the effects of natural and built environments on wellbeing.

Blog from What Works Wellbeing on measuring quality of life for people with learning difficulties.

What Works Wellbeing blog on why nuance is needed in evaluating wellbeing measures