Ms Sinéad Keane:

It is also important to say that we all feel lonely occasionally, but persistent loneliness can have huge impacts on the mental health of young people. What we have heard in those conversations and seen in our research is that it most often co-occurs with stress, sadness and other mental health challenges. It is not just sitting by itself, so to speak. A whole variety of other mental health challenges come hand in hand with those feelings of loneliness.