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Social isolation and loneliness are increasingly recognized as critical public health issues that profoundly affect millions of older adults and their caregivers. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 43% of older adults report feeling lonely, and 27% feel isolated from others, highlighting the widespread nature of these challenges. Beyond diminishing quality of life, loneliness is associated with a higher risk of serious health issues including dementia, reduced ability to perform self-care and mobility tasks, and even a shorter life expectancy.
However, older adults who remain socially engaged in their communities can counter these negative effects. By sharing their knowledge, talents, skills, experience, and wisdom, they not only enrich their communities but also improve their own health outcomes, demonstrating the powerful benefits of social connection.
Meredith Hanley is a program director at USAging, a nonprofit membership association that represents and supports the national network of Area Agencies on Aging and advocates for the Title VI Native American Aging Programs. She oversees USAging’s work in relation to social connection, caregiving and kinship care, including a program called engAGED: The National Resource Center for Engaging Older Adults, a national effort to increase the social engagement of older adults, people with disabilities and caregivers.
She also provides leadership for Commit to Connect, an Administration for Community Living (ACL) initiative, for which USAging serves as the Coordinating Center, working to fight social isolation and loneliness by helping people connect and engage to build the social connections they need to thrive.
“engAGED is all about providing technical assistance and developing resources to help support social engagement efforts of organizations serving older adults, caregivers, and people with disabilities,” Hanley says. “engAGED has an array of resources including the Social Engagement Innovations Hub, Community Awareness Toolkit and a whole suite of customizable resources.”
First launched through engAGED, and now operated in partnership with Commit to Connect, the Social Engagement Innovation Hub is a key tool. “It’s a directory of social engagement programs, and each listing has a program summary including partners involved. The program summaries include staff, financial and other resources needed to operate the program. It also includes outputs and any outcomes data that has been collected,” Hanley says. “We've also grown from having aging network focused examples to more aging and disability focused examples.”
Organizations that serve older adults often peruse the site to get ideas for creating and growing their own social programs. This was the case for the CRIS Healthy-Aging Center in Danville, Illinois. The center is a non-profit organization whose mission is to keep older adults safe, healthy and independent in their own homes for as long as possible.
“We saw an organization in San Francisco that had a program using digital personal assistants to help older adults stay connected, and we thought it would be a good fit for us,” says Clayton Harmening, caregiver advisor and social isolation specialist at CRIS Healthy Aging.
CRIS developed their Social Isolation Program around a digital assistant called the Amazon Echo Show 8. Participants who qualify are given a free, voice activated device which looks like a tablet with a touchscreen. It can display visual information, play videos, display video/voice calls and has a calendar and reminder function.
Making video calls is the core feature of the device, helping seniors talk face-to-face with some of the people they love. Harmening says that people have used it to help set reminders for events like dialysis appointments, to listen to music and to stay in touch with family. For people with dementia, the device can be useful because it will answer the same question over and over again without getting upset. “People can ask it what day it is, or about an appointment 10 times a day, and it will always answer,” he explains.
Participants must be 60 years old or older and have access to wi-fi or a smartphone. They give out about 45 devices each year and currently have a waitlist.
“For those who are really socially disconnected, it's a Band-Aid,” says Harmening, stressing that the device can’t take the place of in-person social activities or conversations. “But it is a really useful tool for people who are socially isolated, if nothing else, it is something that will talk back to you when you talk to it, and sometimes that's something that can be really helpful if you’re very socially isolated.”
Harmening uses a measure called the UCLA 3-Item Loneliness Scale to determine if potential participants are socially isolated. It’s a three question scale that can be completed over the phone. People who qualify based on the measure are enrolled in the program and receive an Amazon Echo device (the program now has a waiting list). Harmening will help users set up the device if needed, which comes with an easy read guide. CRIS provides about 45 devices a year, and Harmening estimates they have given away 300 devices in total.
Harmening re-evaluates participants using the UCLA 3-Item Loneliness Scale after 3 months and 6 months with the Echo Show 8. “We do see a measurable decrease in the reported isolation in people that were part of this program, which is very gratifying,” Harmening says.