A HUG-Centre where people refuel on affection

Geneva in 2061

Where Geneva’s main hospital once stood, there is now the HUG-Centre: a beautiful, homely building with gardens, a kitchen and quiet rooms, where anyone can drop in without an appointment to talk, be listened to, share a meal or simply be held. Smaller HUG-Centres in every neighbourhood make affection as easy to find as a pharmacy is today. Nobody needs a diagnosis to come in, only the wish for human warmth.

Yes, the ugliest building in town was replaced many years ago by a wonderful HUG-Centre, where people come to refuel on affection.Grooters, Book 1, Part 16 “2061”

Geneva today

• 11.4% of Geneva’s population report weak social support, and 24.5% suffer from moderate to high psychological distress, against 17.8% nationally (same report).
• 37.9% of households in the canton consist of a single person (same report).
• Hugs are good for health: in a study of 404 adults deliberately exposed to a cold virus, those who received more hugs were better protected against the effects of stress on infection, and had milder symptoms when they did fall ill (Carnegie Mellon University, 2014).

Where it is already done

• Maggie’s Centres (United Kingdom) have built homely, architect-designed centres next to cancer hospitals since 1996, where anyone affected by cancer can walk in without an appointment or referral for emotional, practical and social support. There are now 24 centres in the UK and four abroad.
• Humanitas in Deventer (Netherlands) is a care home that lets six students live rent-free in exchange for at least 30 hours a month as “good neighbours” to its roughly 160 older residents: watching sports, celebrating birthdays and keeping them company when they fall ill.
• The United Kingdom funded 1,000 additional “social prescribing” link workers in family doctors’ practices by April 2021, so that doctors can refer lonely patients to community activities instead of only prescribing medicine.

How far along

Political will We know how to do it. Someone has to decide to.

The path to 2061

Milestones proposed for discussion.

1. 2027Geneva makes loneliness an official public-health indicator, measured every year and by neighbourhood.
2. 2031The first HUG-Centre opens as a pilot, with drop-in hours, a shared kitchen and trained listeners; every family doctor can prescribe a visit.
3. 2041HUG-Centres open in several neighbourhoods; students, retirees and volunteers keep them warm and lively, as in Deventer.
4. 2051With far fewer people needing hospital care, the main hospital site is redesigned, and the HUG-Centre takes its place, surrounded by gardens.
5. 2061As Smaranda tells Verity, the ugliest building in town has become the place where people come to refuel on affection.

What moves it

Human needs it serves

Open questions

• How can physical affection such as hugs feel safe and welcome for everyone, with clear consent and full respect for people who prefer not to be touched?
• Who runs the HUG-Centres (professionals, trained volunteers, students, or all three) and how are they funded when health insurance mostly pays for treatment?
• Why is loneliness so much higher in Geneva than in the rest of Switzerland, and highest among young people?

Sources

1. Swiss Health Observatory (Obsan): La santé dans le canton de Genève, Obsan Report 03/2025 (in French)
2. Carnegie Mellon University: Hugs help protect against stress and infection (December 2014)
3. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust: Maggie’s, a space for everyone affected by cancer
4. PBS NewsHour: Dutch nursing home offers rent-free housing to students (April 2015)
5. UK Government: Loneliness Annual Report (January 2020)

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