[taway314]

A lot of premature deaths are not just a direct result of suicide or drug abuse, but a deeper result of despair and isolation. Improved healthcare would help, but I feel like it's a cultural issue as well.

My grandfather died in his early 70's a few years ago. By any other measure, he should have lived well into his 80's. He had a comfortable middle-class life and was quite healthy when he was younger. But he spent the last decades of his life in rural Maryland with very little social contact. My family rarely visited him. For reasons I'm still unsure, my dad didn't talk to him for almost 2 decades. His physical and mental health really disintegrated.

My wife is from India, and I'm convinced that this sort of thing is more rare there. There is a strong, almost sacred connection between family members. If your parent is sick or unwell, you bring them into your house and take care of them. No questions asked. For the most part, the culture in (white, middle-class) America looks at things very differently, and I'm not really sure what the solution could be.