Addressing Social Isolation with Older Adults: A Multifaceted Community Engagement Project

Presenter

Pravhith Musunuri

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Ellen Correa, Department of Civic Engagement & Service-Learning, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 5, 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board C29, Poster Showcase Room (163), Row 3 (C21-C30) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

There are nearly 56 million aging adults (65 and older) living in the US in 2020, constituting 17% of the population (US Census, 2020). Many aging adults feel that they have a lower quality of life due to a lack of social connections (Xavier et al., 2003). Known as social isolation in health care scholarship, this occurs when someone is isolated from other people due to varying circumstances. This causes them to have little to no interactions with people outside of their caretakers or even meaningful conversations with caretakers. The lack of connection may severely impact their mental health leading many to develop depression or other adverse mental health symptoms. In coordination with Baystate Medical Center’s GeriPals program, this project tries to address some of these issues of social isolation. GeriPals is a program wherein volunteers have phone or video calls with elderly individuals to reduce social isolation. My project involves creating a social media page for them in an attempt to get more volunteers. I will be doing this by reaching out to various organizations on the UMass Amherst campus to spread the word about the program. The second aspect of the project is to help restructure the evaluation system of the GeriPals program so that we can see if having volunteers reach out to home-bound individuals is useful in helping them feel less lonely. I will also be a volunteer myself with the program to help test the new evaluation system with the older adults I connect with.

 

 

 

Keywords

Civic Engagement, Community Service, Volunteering

Research Area

Social Psychology

SIMILAR ABSTRACTS (BY KEYWORD)