Connecting Elders, Empowering Caregivers

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is in response to Notice Number (NOT-OD-09-058) and Notice Title: NIH Announces the Availability of Recovery Act Funds for Competitive Revision Applications. We propose to adapt for an assisted living environment the Family Connections System (FCS) and Digital Mailbox technology which offer communication tools designed to increase the frequency and type of communications among family members. Frailty and residence within assisted living (AL) are associated with losing social connections, adding to the risk of physical and mental decline, and mortality. The FCS fosters communication between AL residents who are unlikely to be electronically linked, and their community-based network members who rely on electronic communication tools such as email and texting. The original study evaluates the impact of FCS use on communication frequency and range of network members communicating as well as the psychosocial wellbeing of residents and family members. Over 900,000 AL residents in the U.S. have extraordinary potential to benefit from interventions that enhance communication frequency and range of participants. The proposed competitive revision extends the field trial of the FCS within assisted living in three ways: 1) Creates and pilots a network building intervention for the subgroup of the AL population without community members in their social network. Project staff will help interested residents initiate contact with lost network members to invite them into their FCS communication network. The FCS makes communication so easy, that we believe broader networks can be (re-)activated to communicate regularly. Qualitative interviews with socially impoverished residents will identify strategies for network building. Project staff will assist residents with engaging their new (or re-built) network, and test whether we can grow networks that allow orphans to participate in community relationships again. 2) Develop an Activity Modules Guide of multiple activities linking residents to outside social networks. AL facilities are so diverse that a broad range of potential activities are needed to maximize residents' communication with their networks. Modules will be created that provide activity directors with step-by-step instructions for implementing a range of possible activity events that generate communication within residents' FCS networks. A web-based format will be easily accessible to AL staff. 3) Create a User's Guide, a critical component of deployment in AL settings. The User's Guide (UG) can be created from the procedures used to install and operate the FCS in the three AL test sites of the existing project. The UG will document the detailed steps that each site needs to follow in creating an operational FCS within AL. The UG will be developed to be delivered in small manageable sections through a staff website which will be built specifically for their use. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Residents of assisted living have extraordinary potential to benefit from interventions that enhance their social networks and rates of contact because their social losses have negative effects on physical and mental health. This project tests the impact of an innovative technology that links elders' paper and pencil communications with network members' computerized communication tools. The revised project adds infrastructure to support implementation in assisted living facilities by creating novel activities that use the technology, a User's Guide that is integrated with the web-based operation to support staff users, and a pilot intervention to build social networks for elders who lack connections external to the facility.