Many Eindhoven residents regularly feel lonely, as well as young people. According to the Youth Council in the city, fourteen percent of young people in Eindhoven sometimes feel lonely, so the council has come up with an action plan.
The Youth Council presented advice to the municipal council. Fenne Jansen (15) sees the problem around her. “You see people sitting next to each other during the break, on their phones without talking to each other,” she says. Social media certainly plays a role in this, she says. “People may have contact, but it is much more superficial. That is something that our generation is struggling with.” Together with the other youth council members, they therefore came up with advice.
Advice
A youth nurse at schools and collecting information about loneliness are some of the recommendations. Help is available, but finding it or talking about it can be difficult for young people. That is why a kind of buddy system can also help, the members of the Youth Council think. A buddy or intermediary can then help connect young people to the right organisation. A buddy can be a peer who is aware of the organisations.
According to the youth council, it is easier for young people to talk to peers and that can remove the stigma about the subject. “Fortunately, I am doing very well now, but if I were to struggle with loneliness I think I would find it very difficult to talk about it,” says youth council member Roel Beks (16). “There is quite a taboo on the subject.”
Local authority
The Eindhoven city council members are happy with the advice of the youth. “As a municipality, we may not have to medicalise too much, but we can facilitate conversation and help,” says Patrick van Tuijn of the PvdA. Youth Councilor Samir Toub says he will follow the council’s advice. “It’s a shocking number. Loneliness and mental care is something we are actively working on,” he says. “It is good that the Youth Council draws attention to loneliness among young people.”
Source: Studio040
For Eindhoven News: Lila Mehrez
