About Friends for Good

Friends for Good is a national not-for-profit organisation that is the first in Australia to focus specifically on loneliness and social isolation. Our core service is FriendLine, a free anonymous phone service for anyone in the community to connect and have a chat with a volunteer. We also raise awareness of loneliness in the community through events, conferences, training and community education. For more information about Friends for Good visit: https://friendsforgood.org.au/

Training with Friends for Good

Friends for Good is offering a series of training workshops throughout the year on a range of topics. This training aims to provide knowledge and resources to organisations and individuals on a variety of topics in order to build the capacity of those on the frontline who work with individuals experiencing loneliness, as well as policy makers and employers who may need additional skills in managing loneliness in the workplace or community more broadly. The workshops are designed to be interactive and give participants a chance to gain theoretical knowledge as well as engage in activities to apply this knowledge in a practical sense. Our facilitators are all mental health professionals with extensive experience and knowledge of loneliness.

Understanding and Identifying Loneliness

This course is designed for a range of audiences to give a foundation knowledge about the issue of loneliness. We recommend undertaking this course before the others in the series.

Topics covered:

Defining loneliness
Exploring the similarities and differences between loneliness and other related concepts such as social isolation, community inclusion
Basic research findings in relation to causes and prevalence of loneliness in Australia
Correlates of loneliness
Identifying at-risk individuals
Responses to loneliness