Feasibility of school students Skyping care home residents to reduce loneliness.
Comput Hum Behav Rep
; 3: None, 2021.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34278046
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Intergenerational friendship has proved useful for older people in increasing socialisation. We explored the feasibility of school students Skyping older people in care homes with the long-term aim of reducing loneliness.METHODS:
Six school students from one secondary school and twenty older people, including seven with mild to moderate dementia, from three care homes, engaged in Skype video-calls over six weeks. A conversational aid aimed to help school students maintain conversations was employed. Students and care staff completed feedback forms after each session on video-call usage, usefulness of the conversational aid, and barriers and benefits of video-calls. Six care staff provided further feedback on residents' experiences through unstructured interviews. Interviews and field notes were thematically analysed.RESULTS:
Residents enjoyed Skype-calls with school students. Over six weeks, video-calls became longer, and more residents participated. Analysis revealed four themes. First, the intervention led to increased mobility for three older people and improved self-care in regard to personal appearance for five residents. Second, school students and older people formed friendships which inspired the need to meet in person. Third, the use of video-calls enabled participants to view each other's environments in real time. Last, directly experiencing the intervention was important for the continued participation of the care staff in the study. Skype-calls between schools and care homes are feasible and may help reduce loneliness.CONCLUSIONS:
Institutional collaboration between educational settings and care homes through cost effective video-calls can be useful to increase socialisation for older people, and promote later on-going use with other external organisations to help reduce loneliness and social isolation.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Tipo de estudio:
Qualitative_research
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Comput Hum Behav Rep
Año:
2021
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Reino Unido
Pais de publicación:
ENGLAND
/
ESCOCIA
/
GB
/
GREAT BRITAIN
/
INGLATERRA
/
REINO UNIDO
/
SCOTLAND
/
UK
/
UNITED KINGDOM