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Good morning,

In the Ontario Age-Friendly Community Outreach Program's evidence-based report, Building Connections: Promising Practices to Reduce Older Adult Social Isolation for Age-Friendly Community Initiativesmitigating social isolation was categorized into five categories: Technology, Social Interaction, Education, Physical Activity, and Arts.

Over a series of five newsletters, we will share a curated reading list for each category to build awareness, connections, and promising practices to reduce social isolation and loneliness among older adults. If you are planning a local program, looking for inspiration, or building a business case to support your work, this puts the evidence right in your hands!

This third issue highlights some of the literature published between 2016 and 2022 exploring the use of Education to mitigate social isolation and loneliness in older adults. 

Kind regards,
Emily Mullins
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Emily Mullins
Knowledge Broker, Centre for Studies in Aging and Health at Providence Care 
mullinse@providencecare.ca


 Community of Interest on Social Isolation and Loneliness Reading List: 
Education


The topics discussed below include social interaction, the COVID-19 pandemic, empowerment interventions, process evaluation, training partnerships, phone call outreach programs, community exercise programs, Senior Centre Without Walls, delivery of services, educational telephone programming, and the quality of life of older adults.
 
 
Implementing Reverse Mentoring to Address Social Isolation Among Older Adults
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=hdf_facpubs
This paper examines reverse mentoring within an intergenerational program that serves older adults and utilizes the technological knowledge and skills of young adults who mentor older adult participants.
 
Impact of the AGE-ON Tablet Training Program on Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Attitudes Toward Technology in Older Adults: Single-Group Pre-Post Study
https://aging.jmir.org/2020/1/e18398
The study sought to explore the impact of the AGE-ON tablet training program on social isolation, loneliness, and quality of life.
 
Decreasing Social Isolation in Older Adults: Effects of an Empowerment Intervention Offered Through the CARELINK Program
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ttwXIjdTU1B94sjXUPPyzVSOBtmv9kTg/view
This article aimed to test the effects of a care intervention model offered through the CARE-LINK program on social isolation in a sample of community-dwelling older adults.
 
Loneliness and Social Isolation Among Older Adults in a Community Exercise Program: A Qualitative Study
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13607863.2018.1450835
Walk ‘n’ Talk for your Life (WTL) is a community-based program for socialization, health education, falls prevention exercise, and walking for community-dwelling older adults. This study sought to gain insight into the experience and impacts of the WTL on seniors’ loneliness and social isolation.
 
Targeting Socially Isolated Older adults: A Process Evaluation of the Senior Centre Without Walls Social and Educational Program
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0733464813510063
The Senior Centre Without Walls (SCWOW) program provides free social and educational programming for older adults via telephone. This study aimed to gather feedback about program implementation and the perceived satisfaction and impact of the program.
 
Connection Through Calls: The Impact of a Seniors Centre Without Walls on Older Adults’ Social Isolation and Loneliness
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35005099/
The Edmonton Seniors Centre Without Walls program provides free health, psychosocial, and educational telephone programming for older adults who experience multiple barriers to traditional in-person programming. This study aimed to assess outcomes of participation using validated scales of loneliness and health quality of life.
 
Reducing Social Isolation of Seniors During COVID-19 Through Medical Student Telephone Contact
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7274632/
This study describes a phone call outreach program in which healthcare professional student volunteers phone older adults living in long-term care facilities and the community at risk of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.


If you know of any Education programs being offered in your community to reduce social isolation and loneliness of older adults, please email details to mullinse@providencecare.ca to have them added to our inventory. 

Resources

Building Connections: Promising Practices to Reduce Older Adult Social Isolation for Age-Friendly Community Initiatives

Findings from a literature review on social isolation, loneliness and older adults during COVID-19

UN Decade of Healthy Ageing Advocacy Brief: Social isolation and loneliness among older people
About the Ontario Age-Friendly Communities (AFC) Outreach Program

The Outreach Program is funded by the Government of Ontario through the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility and managed by the Centre for Studies in Aging and Health at Providence Care in partnership with Queen’s University.

The Outreach Program aims to raise awareness about AFCs, facilitate connectedness within and between communities, and increase the capacity for local planning and implementation of age-friendly initiatives. The Outreach Program builds on and complements Ontario's Creating a more inclusive Ontario: age-friendly community planning guide for municipalities and community organizations.

The Outreach Program helps communities, including recipients of Ontario’s AFC Planning Grant: increase awareness of age-friendly planning principles; share best practices; and start, continue, evaluate and improve on their AFC action plans.
Stay Connected!
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