The Grand Challenges for Social Work outlined by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare offer a multitude of opportunities for our profession to develop active responses for pressing societal ails. Each challenge charges social workers to engage in innovative and wide-reaching professional endeavors that span research, practice, and policy. Efforts for addressing the grand challenge to “eradicate social isolation” rely on the uniquely “social” dimension of our work pertinent to increasing and strengthening connections across diverse demographic groups (Lubben, Gironda, Sabbath, Kong, & Johnson, 2015). Although social isolation may sound like an innocuous concern, deficiencies in social connections have been associated with a host of sweeping and significant adverse psychosocial, mental, and physical health outcomes that are well documented across varied disciplines (Dickens, Richards, Greaves, & Campbell, 2011; Nicholson, 2012). Social isolation has been described as a “potent killer” that negatively affects morbidity, mortality, mental health, psychological distress, health behaviors, loneliness, stress, disease, and disability (Lubben et al., 2015). Discrete age-specific affects have also been identified at both ends of the continuum. Among youths, social isolation is associated with increased risk for low self-esteem, behavioral problems, future health concerns, depressive symptoms, and suicide attempts. For older adults, social isolation is associated with increased risk for victimization, mistreatment, abuse, fraud, financial difficulties, poor mental health, intellectual and somatic problems, struggles with tasks of daily living, and succumbing to catastrophic events (Lubben et al., 2015). At the time of writing, social isolation has been heightened by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and accompanying quarantine and social distancing guidelines (Brooke & Jackson, 2020). As we reel from the shockwaves of the virus and various forms of seclusion imposed with different degrees of self-determination, we are yet to discover the consequences of this drastic increase in social isolation. Although there is not a great deal of study specific to COVID-19 at present, early literature and that which extrapolates from research on previous viral outbreaks suggest that although social isolation is effective in reducing exposure risk, it increases acute stress, neurological disorders, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, insomnia, and other specified trauma and stressor-related disorders (Banerjee & Rai, 2020; Brooke & Jackson, 2020; Brooks et al., 2020; Torales, O’Higgins, Mauricio, Castaldelli-Maia, & Ventriglio, 2020). These findings spur a host of recommendations for the development of focused community-based psychosocial interventions aimed at reducing symptoms that can be remotely dispatched. When considering more recent developments, coupled with an increase in social isolation marked by fewer close interpersonal connections, this grand challenge is a significant problem that requires immediate attention.

中文翻译：

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消除社会孤立的研究、实践和政策策略

美国社会工作和社会福利学院概述的社会工作面临的巨大挑战为我们的职业提供了大量机会来积极应对紧迫的社会问题。每项挑战都要求社会工作者参与跨越研究、实践和政策的创新和广泛的专业努力。应对“消除社会孤立”这一巨大挑战的努力依赖于我们工作中独特的“社会”维度，这与增加和加强不同人口群体之间的联系有关（Lubben、Gironda、Sabbath、Kong 和 Johnson，2015 年）。尽管社会孤立听起来像是一个无关紧要的问题，但社会联系的缺陷与一系列广泛而显着的不利的社会心理、心理、和身体健康结果，这些结果在不同学科中有详细记录（Dickens、Richards、Greaves 和 Campbell，2011 年；Nicholson，2012 年）。社会孤立被描述为“强力杀手”，会对发病率、死亡率、心理健康、心理困扰、健康行为、孤独感、压力、疾病和残疾产生负面影响（Lubben 等，2015）。在连续体的两端也确定了离散的特定年龄影响。在年轻人中，社会孤立与自卑、行为问题、未来健康问题、抑郁症状和自杀企图的风险增加有关。对于老年人来说，社会孤立与受害、虐待、虐待、欺诈、经济困难、心理健康状况不佳、智力和身体问题的风险增加有关，与日常生活任务作斗争，并屈服于灾难性事件（Lubben 等，2015）。在撰写本文时，冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 大流行以及随之而来的隔离和社会疏远准则（Brooke & Jackson，2020 年）加剧了社会隔离。当我们从病毒的冲击波和因不同程度的自决强加的各种形式的隔离中感到震惊时，我们尚未发现这种社会孤立急剧增加的后果。尽管目前没有大量针对 COVID-19 的研究，但早期文献和从先前病毒爆发的研究中推断出的研究表明，尽管社会隔离可有效降低暴露风险，但它会增加急性压力、神经系统疾病、抑郁症, 焦虑症, 创伤后应激障碍, 失眠以及其他特定的创伤和压力相关疾病（Banerjee & Rai，2020；Brooks & Jackson，2020；Brooks 等，2020；Torales、O'Higgins、Mauricio、Castaldelli-Maia 和 Ventriglio，2020）。这些发现激发了一系列建议，以制定以社区为基础的社会心理干预措施，旨在减少可以远程调度的症状。考虑到最近的事态发展，再加上社会孤立的加剧，以更少的亲密人际关系为标志，这一重大挑战是一个需要立即关注的重大问题。这些发现激发了一系列建议，以制定以社区为基础的社会心理干预措施，旨在减少可以远程调度的症状。考虑到最近的事态发展，再加上社会孤立的加剧，以更少的亲密人际关系为标志，这一重大挑战是一个需要立即关注的重大问题。这些发现激发了一系列建议，以制定以社区为基础的社会心理干预措施，旨在减少可以远程调度的症状。考虑到最近的事态发展，再加上社会孤立的加剧，以更少的亲密人际关系为标志，这一重大挑战是一个需要立即关注的重大问题。