Older Volunteers Delivering Loneliness Interventions Found to Be Less Lonely Themselves

A volunteer program that engages lonely older adults in delivering psychosocial interventions to other lonely older adults benefited the volunteers themselves by reducing their loneliness, stress, and depressive symptoms and increasing their social engagement, according tostudy in theAmerican Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.The program could be a scalable solution to address the loneliness epidemic in this country, according to lead author Lisa Warner, Ph.D., of the Department of Psychology at MSB Medical School in Berlin and colleagues.As part of the “Helping Alleviate Loneliness in Hong Kong Older Adults (HEAL-HOA)” trial, 185 adults aged 50 to 70 years old were randomized to work as volunteers delivering a manualized loneliness intervention by telephone to other older adults as part of a concurrent trial measuring the effect on recipients’ loneliness. A control group of 190 older adults participated in a psycho-education program and social gatherings but did not volunteer. Participants were recruited by the research staff through household visits and advertisements at public housing estates and community centers for older adults.The primary outcome was loneliness as measured by the Chinese version of the 20-item Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale. Secondary outcomes were loneliness measured by the Chinese version of the De Long Gierveld Scale and measurements of social engagement, perceived social support, perceived stress, and symptoms of depression and anxiety.Volunteer...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: depression Lisa Warner loneliness loneliness epidemic peer counseling psychosocial interventions social engagement stress volunteering Source Type: research