NEW YORK — Dr. Ruth Westheimer has been appointed as the first loneliness ambassador in the state of New York and even nationwide to help those struggling with being isolated and lonely.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday that Westheimer, 95, is the country’s first Ambassador to Loneliness. She has accepted the honorary title and will be helping New Yorkers of all ages deal with social isolation.
Social isolation is associated with “multiple physical and mental health issues, including cognitive decline, anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disorders, weakened immunity, Alzheimer’s disease, and premature death,” the governor’s office said.
The idea for this role was actually Westheimer’s idea, according to CNN. Last year, Dr. Ruth suggested the idea as a way to provide advice on dealing with loneliness and isolation. It was something Hochul’s office took her up on.
“As New York works to fight the loneliness epidemic, some help from honorary Ambassador Ruth Westheimer may be just what the doctor ordered,” Hochul said. “Dr. Ruth Westheimer has offered her services to help older adults and all New Yorkers cope with the loneliness epidemic and I will be appointing her to serve as the nation’s first state-level honorary Ambassador to Loneliness. Studies show individuals experiencing loneliness had a 32 percent higher risk of dying early and we need leaders like Dr. Ruth to help address this critical component of our mental health crisis.”
“Hallelujah! I got off the phone with Governor Hochul yesterday afternoon. She called to ask me to serve as the very first Honorary Ambassador to Loneliness in the nation,” Westheimer said. I am deeply honored and promised the Governor that I will work day and night to help New Yorkers feel less lonely.”
In early September, Westheimer suffered a “little stroke” as she called it, according to The New York Times. She went to a rehabilitation facility for about a month and a half before she went back to her apartment in Upper Manhattan which she has lived in for 60 years.
She told the newspaper that she needed to meet with the governor’s staff to come up with a plan. “The first thing to do is have the courage to admit you’re lonely,” she said. “Then you can do something about it.”
Loneliness was something Westheimer felt firsthand during the COVID-19 pandemic but it also brought back memories of World War II. She’s a Holocaust survivor. She was part of the Kinderstransport and the only way for her to survive was to get on a train to Switzerland, the Times reported.
She lost her family to the Holocaust, CNN reported.
When the war ended she went on a British naval ship to what was then Palestine, which later became Israel., according to the Times. She joined the Haganah, which was a paramilitary organization of Jewish people before the Israel Defense Force. Through it all she kept a diary that she started writing in when she was 17 years old.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer became a national celebrity in the 1980s as America’s sex therapist, the Times reported. Since then, the talk show host has written more than 37 books, according to CNN.
