"Please, Mr. Postman:" Exploring the Use of Letter Writing to Address Loneliness

Abstract

Purpose: Informed by prior research and influenced by concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic heightened social isolation, this project examined the impact of a 12-month long letter writing project on levels of loneliness.

Method: Through partnerships with local anti-poverty agencies, pen pals were paired between MSW students and community members who utilize services at these organizations. Participants completed the UCLA Loneliness Scale before and after the intervention.

Results: We found a mean decrease in loneliness at the end of the intervention.

Discussion: Letter writing was a successful way to attend to loneliness due to its accessibility to the participants. Our letter writing intervention is different in many ways from e-mail and texting. Participants noted that the waiting process between letter gave them time to think more deeply about their response as well as event to look forward to (e.g. getting mail). We found that the low-tech aspects of the project might have been helpful to some participants.

Conclusion: Letter writing is an easily replicable, low-cost, low-tech activity for use by practitioners, which may be useful in a variety of social work settings to reduce loneliness.

Keywords: Loneliness; anti-poverty; community; letter writing; mixed methods.