ASSEMBLY HEALTH COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION No. 111

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 3, 2024

      The Assembly Health Committee reports favorably Assembly Resolution No. 111.

This resolution recognizes loneliness as a public health crisis.  The United States Surgeon General declared a loneliness epidemic on May 3, 2023 due to an increase in the number of people experiencing loneliness and the adverse health effects that those individuals are prone to experience.  Loneliness and isolation increase the risk for individuals to develop mental health challenges and to experience premature death. 

      While the epidemic of loneliness and isolation is widespread and has profound consequences for our individual and collective health and well-being, there is an available solution to the problem: social connection.  Social connection is beneficial for individual health, improving the resilience of our communities, and decreasing the feeling of loneliness.  With more than one in five adults and more than one in three young adults living with a mental illness in the United States, addressing loneliness and isolation is critical in order to fully address the mental health crisis in New Jersey.