Reducing Social Isolation of Seniors during COVID-19 through Medical Student Telephone Contact

Reducing Social Isolation of Seniors during COVID-19 through Medical Student Telephone Contact

Social isolation has been associated with many adverse health outcomes in older adults. We describe a phone call outreach program in which health care professional student volunteers phoned older adults, living in long-term care facilities and the community, at risk of social isolation during the CO...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Medical Directors Association Vol. 21; no. 7; pp. 948 - 950
Main Authors: Office, Emma E., Rodenstein, Marissa S., Merchant, Tazim S., Pendergrast, Tricia Rae, Lindquist, Lee A.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-07-2020
Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of AMDA - The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine
Subjects:
Adaptation, Psychological
Age Factors
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Cell Phone Use - statistics & numerical data
Cohort Studies
Communication
Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology
Coronavirus Infections - prevention & control
COVID-19
Empowerment
Female
Geriatric Assessment
Humans
Male
Medical education
Pandemics - prevention & control
Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology
Pneumonia, Viral - prevention & control
Quality of Life
Social isolation
Social Isolation - psychology
Students, Medical - statistics & numerical data
Telehealth
Telephone - statistics & numerical data
United States
Volunteers
Young Adult
United States
COVID-19
Medical education
Telehealth
Social isolation
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Social isolation has been associated with many adverse health outcomes in older adults. We describe a phone call outreach program in which health care professional student volunteers phoned older adults, living in long-term care facilities and the community, at risk of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conversation topics were related to coping, including fears or insecurities, isolation, and sources of support; health; and personal topics such as family and friends, hobbies, and life experiences. Student volunteers felt the calls were impactful both for the students and for the seniors, and call recipients expressed appreciation for receiving the calls and for the physicians who referred them for a call. This phone outreach strategy is easily generalizable and can be adopted by medical schools to leverage students to connect to socially isolated seniors in numerous settings.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1525-8610
1538-9375
DOI:10.1016/j.jamda.2020.06.003