Connecting is good for your health - Mental Health Foundation

March 2011

‘Getting by with a little help from our friends (and neighbours) ‐ how social connectedness is as good for you as quitting smoking!’

New studies released in 2011 showed the importance of social connectedness to both our mental and physical wellbeing. 

In support of Neighbours Day, Amanda Bradley, Northern Development Manager of the Mental Health Foundation spoke to staff at Auckland District Health Board on this topic.

“The time has come to think about mental health as a positive resource that can lead to individual and family and whanau resilience and improved social relationships, and allow us to respond effectively to the global challenges before us.

Increasing proportions of the population are being diagnosed with mental disorders, even where social circumstances are improving. There are also many more stressors and strains on mental health generally relating to the increased pace and complexity of life.

However, flourishing, a measure of mental health that has been developed within the last decade can be used to determine the level of positive mental health in populations.

When someone is flourishing they experience positive emotions, positive interest and engagement with the world around them, and meaning and purpose in their lives most of the time. Evidence suggests that people who are flourishing are less at risk of physical and mental health problems and have better social relationships.

The Five Ways to Wellbeing is a report by The Centre for Well-Being at the New Economics Foundation presented to on communicate the evidence base for improving people’s well-being:

The most up-to-date evidence suggests that building the following five actions into our day-to-day lives is important for well-being:

Connect: With the people around you. With family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. At home, work, school or in your local community. Think of these as the cornerstones of your life and invest time in developing them. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.

Be Active: Go for a walk or run. Step outside. Cycle. Play a game. Garden. Dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Most importantly, discover a physical activity you enjoy and that suits your level of mobility and fitness.

Take Notice: Be curious. Catch sight of the beautiful. Remark on the unusual. Notice the changing seasons. Savour
the moment, whether you are walking to work, eating lunch or talking to friends.  Reflecting on your experiences will help you appreciate what matters to you.

Keep Learning: Try something new. Rediscover an old interest. Sign up for that course. Take on a different responsibility at work. Set a challenge you will enjoy achieving. Learning new things will make you more confident as well as being fun.

Neighbours Day might open doors and sharing of skills and knowledge; perhaps a neighbour has a fantastic knack for making jam and you have a plum tree or knows how to fix that puncture on your child’s bike that has been in the shed unused for months.

Give: Do something nice for a friend, or a stranger. Thank someone. Smile.   Seeing yourself, and your happiness, linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and creates connections with the people around you.

Researchers at Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the United States conducted a literature review on the relationship between health outcomes and social relationships.

They found a strong correlation between increased life expectancy and robust social ties and they posed two possible causes; a wide network of family and friends may increase our access to resources e.g. support to take care of us when we are unwell, as well as motivating us to make healthy lifestyle changes e.g. quitting smoking when a child comes into a family.

We are beginning to understand that there are physiological changes in our responses to stress when we are supported by people close to us as well as discovering that the immune system of people with a wide social network works better.

Neighbours Day makes sense to the Mental Health Foundation as a fantastic initiative to improve our social connectedness which as I’ve discussed has a strong evidence base for improving our wellbeing.  Neighbours Day is full of opportunities to give to your community, to the people and families who live around you with simple inexpensive gestures.

See also the Washington Post article: Research suggests that good friends may actually be great medicine.