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21st Century Good Neighbor Program: An Easily Generalizable Program to Reduce Social Isolation in Older Adults.

ABSTRACT: Aim: In this once-in-a-lifetime humanitarian crisis, what does it mean to be a good neighbor? It means that as a community, we must address loneliness and barriers to care faced by vulnerable populations such as older adults. We share an inexpensive longitudinal experiential service-learning program implemented by health professions and undergraduate student volunteers that aims to help alleviate loneliness in older adults while imparting meaningful experiences to volunteers. Intervention Design and Setting: The 21st Century Good Neighbor Program is an observational cohort study of an experiential service-learning program started in May 2020, and this article shares the results collected after 1 year. This longitudinal, weekly phone call program was conducted in a single community setting in the Midwestern part of the United States. Older adults over the age of 60 served by a local community service agency (CSA) were invited to participate. Volunteers consisted of students 18 or older. Student volunteers made regular phone calls to a pair of older adults throughout the course of 1 year following standardized call scripts. The loneliness of the older adults was measured by volunteers using the 3-item UCLA Loneliness Assessment. Results: 261 older adults were engaged in conversations with a volunteer. A total of 1,391 calls were accepted by older adults and the median length of a welcomed call was 11 min. The average baseline loneliness score was 4.156 ± 1.41 and the prevalence of social isolation was 19.5%. There was no significant change in the UCLA loneliness score in the first year of follow up. However, a majority of volunteers (88%) agreed or strongly agreed that the program had a positive impact on them. In addition, the program identified 257 issues older adults faced that required follow-up. The most prevalent concerns referred to the community service agency by volunteers were issues related to utilities, food and transportation access. Conclusion: The 21st Century Good Neighbor Program is a unique intervention in which student volunteers and older adults paired by a community service agency forge relationships though a longitudinal phone call-based program. This easy-to-implement program provides another layer of support to identify and refer issues that impact social determinants of health. The added benefit of volunteer satisfaction in the setting of COVID 19 pandemic is heartening. We hope to continue to study the impact of this intervention on social isolation in this vulnerable population.

SUBMITTER: Sandu S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8721124 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:There is no good science in bad models. Cell culture is especially prone to artifacts. A number of novel cell culture technologies have become more broadly available in the 21st century, which allow overcoming limitations of traditional culture and are more physiologically relevant. These include the use of stem-cell derived human cells, cocultures of different cell types, scaffolds and extracellular matrices, perfusion platforms (such as microfluidics), 3D culture, organ-on-chip technologies, tissue architecture, and organ functionality. The physiological relevance of such models is further enhanced by the measurement of biomarkers (e.g., key events of pathways), organ specific functionality, and more comprehensive assessment cell responses by high-content methods. These approaches are still rarely combined to create microphysiological systems. The complexity of the combination of these technologies can generate results closer to the in vivo situation but increases the number of parameters to control, bringing some new challenges. In fact, we do not argue that all cell culture needs to be that sophisticated. The efforts taken are determined by the purpose of our experiments and tests. If only a very specific molecular target to cell response is of interest, a very simple model, which reflects this, might be much more suited to allow standardization and high-throughput. However, the less defined the end point of interest and cellular response are, the better we should approximate organ- or tissue-like culture conditions to make physiological responses more probable. Besides these technologic advances, important progress in the quality assurance and reporting on cell cultures as well as the validation of cellular test systems brings the utility of cell cultures to a new level. The advancement and broader implementation of Good Cell Culture Practice (GCCP) is key here. In toxicology, this is a major prerequisite for meaningful and reliable results, ultimately supporting risk assessment and product development decisions.

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21st Century Good Neighbor Program: An Easily Generalizable Program to Reduce Social Isolation in Older Adults.

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