00:00so we do know in australia australia for our 2023 state of the nation report on social
00:07connection in australia almost one in three australians will report problematic levels of
00:13loneliness and even though loneliness is really common almost 50 percent of australians actually
00:20report that they will actively conceal their loneliness and about 30 percent of australians
00:25will actually say they feel ashamed when they feel lonely so there are certain cohorts in our
00:31community that are particularly affected and this is where people are maybe perhaps might themselves
00:36be socially isolated so they're actually physically seeing fewer people but they can also be more
00:42vulnerable segments of a population like older people with limited mobility people who do not
00:47have close family and friends around them especially during this festive season and they don't actually
00:53have the i guess the ability to spend that time with other people uh for many people i often advise
01:00them if if this is a time where they feel it's really critical to be with people it's always
01:04important to plan ahead and and to actually make plans for yourself it's actually okay as well to be
01:10by yourself you know it's not really uh we don't have to really cave into that social pressure that we
01:15have to be with people and in fact i do know many people who have friends themselves who choose
01:20to use this time as a bit of a reset uh self-care and actually um almost kind of take advantage of
01:27this quiet period to really check in with themselves so i think for for people who really do want
01:34um that connection you know it's important that we kind of think about this sort of period ahead and
01:40plan things where they feel like they're connected to not just family and friends but maybe to the
01:45wider community so i think that christmas is a time uh to also be generous i think that while
01:51many of us are fairly insular and we really want to just connect with friends and family it's also a
01:58time for us to think about bringing other people in um and they don't have to be people that we we
02:04know very well and you know it's a time for ourselves to be generous and to kind of um open our homes
02:11and and and or open i guess moments of connection again we don't have to be doing big things uh for
02:18other people but really checking in or or letting people know that we're thinking of them or giving
02:24them a call even if we can't have them in our homes or to spend time with them those little things can
02:29be important and this is to people who feel lonely but also people who um don't feel lonely at this period
02:35you
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