Understanding Loneliness: Coping, Accepting, Transcending (#ElevateTheConvo Twitter Chat)

When: February 17th, 2022

8:00PM ET/7:00PM CT

6:00PM MT/5:00PM PT

Where: Twitter #ElevateTheConvo

What: 1-hour conversation. Just follow the #ElevateTheConvo hashtag on Twitter and join in as our panelists -- all experts understanding loneliness.

Feel free to join in the conversation. If you are new to participating in a Twitter Chat here is a brief  "how to" article. At the time of the chat just put the hashtag #ElevateTheConvo in the Twitter search field, then hit the "latest" tab and you will see the most recent posts. When you refresh the search tab new posts will emerge.

Who: All those interested in learning or sharing about the importance coping with loneliness.

Overview

Even before COVID-19, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy identified "loneliness" as a public health crisis and a epidemic of our time. This massive issue -- which he suggested is just as harmful as smoking -- was hidden in plain sight, affecting 22% of adults.

Interestingly, solitude, protects against loneliness. In this chat, we will be talking about the science, stories and strategy of understanding loneliness and its impact on our health and wellbeing.

Questions

1. How do we define loneliness? Who is most impacted? How has your lived experience with loneliness (yourself or someone you support) impacted your perceptions on how it related to mental health?
2. What does the research tell us about #Loneliness and its connection to suicide risk, addiction and other mental health challenges? What are the root causes of loneliness? How have these risks been heightened or buffered by COVID?
3. How do people cope with loneliness? What can be done to prevent people from becoming lonely? What can support people do to help others who are lonely?
4. What are current trends in loneliness? Where do you see both drivers for loneliness and solutions three to five years from now? Is there any silver lining to loneliness? How do we transcend times in our lives when we are socially disconnected?

Panelists

Tom Insel, M.D.

@thomasinselmd 

Tom lnsel, M.D., a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, has been a national leader in mental health research, policy, and technology. From 2002-2015, Dr. Insel served as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). More recently (2015 – 2021), he has been an entrepreneur in several mental health start-ups as well as board member for several non-profits. He is the author of the forthcoming book Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health, and recently launched MindSite News (www.mindsitenews.org), a non-profit digital publication focused on mental health issues.

Katherine Sayre

@KatherineSayre

Katherine Sayre is a reporter with the Wall Street Journal, where she has worked since 2019. As part of the Los Angeles bureau, she covers the gambling and film industries. Before joining the Journal, she was a lead reporter for the Times-Picayune’s investigative team in New Orleans, Louisiana, where her award-winning work included examining failures in the state’s mental health care system. 

Sarah Gaer, MA

@SarahGaer

Sarah Gaer is a suicide loss survivor and a Master’s Level Clinician with twenty years’ experience in the field of mental health care, a Board member for United Suicide Survivors International, and an author. Her graduate degree work was focused on military veterans and trauma. Since 2012, Sarah has worked as a Suicide Prevention Specialist focused on men in the middle years and first responders. She has trained hundreds of first responders in trauma and suicide prevention in Massachusetts and is a QPR (Question, Persuade & Refer) Master Trainer for the QPR Institute. Sarah is also member of the Riverside Trauma Center trauma team and has responded to suicides, homicides, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks throughout Massachusetts. She has also worked with many families after their loss by suicide and is currently co-chair of the Pioneer Valley Coalition for Suicide Prevention and sits on the Executive Committee for the Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention.

Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD

@jholtlunstad

Dr. Holt-Lunstad is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Brigham Young University. Her research is focused on the long-term health effects of social connection. Her work has been seminal in the recognition of social isolation and loneliness as risk factors for early mortality. Dr. Holt-Lunstad has worked with government organizations aimed at addressing this issue. She has provided expert testimony in a US Congressional Hearing, provided expert recommendations for the US Surgeon General Emotional Well-Being in America Initiative, and is currently a member of the technical working group for the UK Cross Departmental Loneliness Team. She also serves as a scientific advisor for the Australian Coalition to End Loneliness, the Foundation for Art & Healing, and research advisory panel for AARP Services, Inc., United Healthcare, and Rural Aging. She has been awarded the Citation Award for Excellence in Research by the Society of Behavioral Medicine, the George A. Miller Award from the American Psychological Association, the Mary Lou Fulton Young Scholar Award, the Marjorie Pay Hinkley Endowed Chair Research Award, and is a Fellow for the Association of Psychological Science. Her work has been highlighted in the BBC 100 Breakthrough Health Discoveries in 2015, and has been covered in the New York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Scientific American, This American Life, The Today Show, and other major media outlets.

Lisa Jaremka, Ph.D.

@LisaJaremka

Lisa Jaremka, PhD is an associate professor at the University of Delaware in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. She uses a social psychological approach to understand how feeling socially disconnected affects mental and physical health. She is particularly interested in the peripheral physiological mechanisms that might underlie this process.

Rosie Bauder, Ph.D.

@RosieBauderPhD

C. Rosie Bauder, Ph.D., MA, MPH, LPC, NCC. Rosie is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Ohio and a National Certified Counselor. She currently works in private practice, under supervision, in the greater Columbus area and works mostly with clients around suicide, self-injury, sexual trauma, and eating disorders.

Rosie’s research interests include examining sexual health competencies in counselor education and interdisciplinary and integrated approaches to suicide research and prevention. She has presented on these topics as well as presented on the need for suicide assessment and treatment preparation for professional counselors. She is passionate about elevating the voices of folks with lived experience of suicide and identifies as having lived experience.

Anne Moss Rogers

@AnneMossRogers

Despite her family’s best efforts, Anne Moss’s 20-year-old son Charles died by suicide on June 5, 2015, after many years of struggle with anxiety, depression, and ultimately addiction. Anne Moss started a blog,  EmotionallyNaked.com, that has reached millions and chronicled her family’s tragedy in a newspaper article that went viral. She has been featured in the New York Times and was the first suicide loss survivor ever invited to speak at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Anne Moss is a certified suicide prevention trainer, NAMI Virginia Board member, 2 End the Stigma (addiction) board member, and YWCA 2019 Pat Asch fellow. She is the author of two books, the award-winning memoir, Diary of a Broken Mind and Emotionally Naked: A Teacher’s Guide to Preventing Suicide and Recognizing Students at Risk with co-writer Kim O’Brien Ph.D., LICSW.

Ursula Whiteside, Ph.D.

@UrsulaWhiteside

Dr. Ursula Whiteside is a licensed clinical psychologist, CEO of NowMattersNow.org and Clinical Faculty at the University of Washington. As a researcher, she has been awarded grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Clinically, she began her training with Dr. Marsha Linehan in 1999 and later served as a DBT-adherent research therapist on a NIMH-funded clinical trial led by Dr. Linehan. Dr. Whiteside is a group and individual certified DBT clinician. Now, she treats high-risk suicidal clients in her small private practice in Seattle using DBT and caring contacts.

Dr. Whiteside is national faculty for the Zero Suicide initiative, a practical approach to suicide prevention in health care and behavioral healthcare systems. This program was described by NPR on a segment titled “What Happens If You Try to Prevent Every Single Suicide?” She is also vice-president of United Suicide Survivors International.

As a person with Lived Experience, she strives to decrease the gap between "us and them" and to ensure that the voices of those who have been there are included in all relevant conversations: nothing about us without us.

David Manuel

@davideliotman

David is currently completing a second undergraduate degree as an honours psychology student at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Dr. David Klonsky. He is interested in the role that various forms of connectedness (including but not limited to social connectedness) may play in helping to prevent suicide. Towards that end, he is helping to develop a comprehensive measure of connectedness as it relates to suicide. He's also been a front-line volunteer call responder with the Crisis Intervention & Suicide Prevention Centre of BC since February 2020. He hopes to pursue a career as a clinical psychologist in the years to come.

Nadia Mendoza

@_SelfEsteemTeam

Nadia is the Founder of the "Self-Esteem Team" a London based school wellbeing program. Having experienced her own journey with self-harm and depression, she understands the frustration young people have in trying to find their voice and not knowing how to use it. She has a background in journalism (working for the majority of the UK's best-selling newspapers) which has also given her a unique perspective into the inner workings of fame and celebrity, and the part they play in our relationship with self-esteem. This combination of personal and professional experience has helped shape the workshops to equip pupils with the tools needed to navigate a 24/7 world.