Keeping in touch with other people

is becoming increasingly important. Social distancing cannot be allowed to become social isolation which in turn can lead to mental ill-health.
I feel so strongly about the importance of this for some people that I recently wrote a note to my local federal Member of Parliament. 
Now let it be said here that I do not do such things lightly. I like to sort things out for myself if I can because I also know that far too many people think, "That's something my MP can do. MPs don't do anything." 
On this occasion though I knew it was a nationwide issue. I sent an email even though I know it is better to send an MP an old fashioned snail mail letter. (Yes, really!) I was taking advantage of the fact that I knew an email from me was likely to be read and responded to in a reasonable space of time. 
It was. I had a return email yesterday. Action has been taken at her level. What will happen higher up is now in the hands of other people.
What I did was point out that many people on limited incomes cannot afford the more expensive mobile phone plans that allow them to make as many calls as they would like to make at this present time. They have the simplest and cheapest possible emergency plan. It is not intended for anything more than being able to contact someone they know in an emergency. Some people on such plans are people with limited intellectual abilities. They usually rely on community activities  to socialise. Others are people with other disabilities who are unable to work. Their day-care activities have ceased. Far too many of them who were employed, even just for a few hours a week, no longer have jobs. Money is always tight in these circumstances. Unlimited access to even just conversation on a phone is a luxury. Right now many of those people are almost completely isolated. 
I know of two quite large groups who are housed in the community. They live "independently" in that they have tiny units - which amount to not much more than a bathroom and a living space with a "kitchen" at one end and a television at the other. In between there is a table so small that two people cannot eat comfortably together. There is a bedroom which is barely big enough for the bed and the "built-in" wardrobe. 
At the best of times these are perhaps "adequate" living spaces. Right now when people are not supposed to go out and socialise and even close family are not supposed to visit they are prison like.
I know of nobody in one of these who reads for pleasure, indeed many of them cannot read well enough to manage their own paper work and that is why I know them. They do not own computers  or know how  to  use them. Several of the women can  do simple craft work but,  in more normal times, they would ask me or someone else to help with instructions or to fix a mistake.  
Isolating people in this group however is essential. Many of them have underlying health conditions. If they become ill through the virus they are not likely to survive.  If they do it will be at an immense and possibly permanent cost to themselves and to the community due to increased medical needs. 
And they have the right to the same capacity to "socially distant" contact family and friends as anyone else. 
I've raised the issue. My federal MP agrees with me. I hope the Minister responsible can do something about it.