KORALE

Loneliness is an "affective and cognitive discomfort or unease about being or perceiving oneself alone" (APA). In recent years, the phenomenon of loneliness has become increasingly relevant and is one of the main challenges facing Western societies in general and public policies in particular. Albeit unevenly, loneliness affects all regions of Europe.

Loneliness and social isolation have a harmful impact on mental and physical health and have important consequences for social cohesion. Loneliness is associated with a lack of political engagement and higher-risk behaviours.

It also has an economic cost, estimated at 4% of the EU GDP. Loneliness can impact people’s quality of life across the whole life course, being specifically relevant in the elderly; less studied, loneliness is increasing quickly among young people, who were especially affected by the pandemic.

KORALE aims to improve public policies by incorporating and/or mainstreaming the prevention and tackling of loneliness among the elderly and youth, through an exchange of experiences between European regions with different levels of awareness and incidence of the phenomenon, and a diversity of approaches.

Project Partners in KORALE, representing Basque Country/Spain, Austria, Portugal, Ireland, Belgium, and Denmark, will

• identify and share good practices that prevent or address loneliness at individual, family, and community levels, focusing on low-threshold approaches;
• learn about successful cases of intervention strategies that, deployed early in life, can lead to a reduction in the incidence of loneliness later in life, focusing on longer-term approaches;
• identify the key factors that enable these good practices to be transformed and achieve higher impact policies and how to integrate them into other policies (such as health, education, and housing).

After 3 years of activities, including six learning events, study visits and peer review workshops, 24 good practices and a KORALE Policy Guide will be published.