Key Messages

We have three main target groups – one is older adults who wish to use technology to maintain community and social connections. We provide a telephone and videoconferenced platform for these groups to meet and we provide ad hoc training for older adults. The second group of older adults we are working with are older adults who engage in mental health tracking – whtere their mental health is tracked over the phone on a schedule that works for them (weekly, bi-monthly, monthly). Finally, the third group of older adults who have emerged from our work are those who are afraid of technology and are not using technology to maintain social and community connections.

Lay Summary

We are currently focussed on supporting older adults to maintain social connections and connections with community-organizations using technology that integrates videoconferencing and telephone. We are recruiting older adults to engage in mental health tracking to understand the impact of the pandemic on older adults’ mental health and to engage them with services as needed. We have encountered many older adults who remain socially isolated for a variety of reasons, such as fear of technology and lack of access to technology and we are exploring these barriers further.

Author(s)

• Nominated Principal Applicant: Megan E. O’Connell, PhD., R.D.Psych., University of Saskatchewan

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Population

Aging

Language

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