Emerging from the shadows: Social
isolation amongst older people and the
importance of interventions
Presented by Dr Debbie Faulkner
As a member of the research team
(Beer A., Lewin G., Buys L., Tinker A., Bentley R., Watts A., Squires B.,
Chessman S., Baker S., McKechnie S. and Morgans A.)
Illawarra Research Symposium:
Working Together to Live Well, Longer
10 April 2015
The Centre for Housing, Urban and Regional Planning
National Collaborative Project
RESEARCHERS & UNIVERSITIES
•
•
•
•
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Professor Andrew Beer and Dr Debbie
Faulkner, (The University of Adelaide)
Dr Rebecca Bentley, (The University of
Melbourne)
Professor Laurie Buys, (QUT)
Professor Gill Lewin, (Curtin University of
Technology)
Professor Anthea Tinker, (King’s College,
London).
LINKAGE PARTNERS
ARC Linkage Project
No LP 110200419
Background
Questions to Answer
• What are the predictors of success in addressing social
isolation?
• Does the form of intervention affect the likelihood of success?
• Are interventions more effective or successful with particular
groups defined on the basis of particular characteristics such as
gender, housing arrangement, age, presence of disability or
socio-economic status?
• Is there a measurable difference in how effectively low, medium
and high intervention programs address social isolation?
• What impact does time have?
• What if any, is the impact of the institutional setting – for
example local government, service organization, housing
provider?
Methodology
• Review of the literature
• Longitudinal quantitative survey of
older Australians affected by social
isolation and fall within three service
provision categories
• Wave 1: 1500 surveys ( 300 surveys100/intervention X 5 states);
• Wave 2: 1200 surveys (240 surveys –
80/intervention X 5 states);
• Wave 3: 900 surveys (180 surveys –
60/intervention X 5 states).
Longitudinal Study - Service
Provision
Developed by E. KennettSmith based on Raymond et al
2013
Methodology –longitudinal
survey
• To be conducted across five states represented by researchers
and linkage partners
• Qualifying criteria for inclusion of older person:
o Aged 65 years and over;
o Not suffering advanced cognitive impairment or in the final
palliative stages of a terminal illness;
o They are new to a service or program or have been assessed
and assigned to a program are not yet participating or have
just started;
o The person is willing to be involved in the project; and
o Upon completing The Friendship Scale the person is identified
as being isolated
• Potential participants to be introduced to the project by service
providers
• Interviews at initial contact, 3 months later and in another 3 months
Methodology - Qualitative data
collection
• in-depth interviews with 30 older people from
each intervention category
• Focus groups:
• Small group of clients from each intervention group
• service providers and policy makers active in area
Enthusiasm of the service
providers
“I’ve got some preliminary figures through from the two
SI project officers. The number of referrals to the
program in the last 12 months exceeds 70 clients (I’m
still waiting on 6 months worth of figures from one
region which in theory should boost the numbers by
another 20 or so). The program has also expanded into
a new region, so it is likely that the referral numbers will
increase. That means that if we started recruiting
research participants from the beginning of July then
we should be able to almost fill the quota of 100
research participants.”
Longitudinal Survey
Sample Size
• Wave 1
• Target 1500
Actual Responses 79
• Wave 2
• Target 1200
Actual Responses 6 9
• Wave 3
• Target 900
Actual Responses 55 (+5)
Methodological Issues
• Anticipated numbers of new people entering aged care
services declines
• Parameters for inclusion too restrictive
• Paperwork detail
• Filtering of information from management to frontline
workers
• Frontline service provision staff busy
• Service providers need time to develop trust with clients
• Difficult to engage social isolated people in research
• People reluctant to see themselves in way asking to
identify themselves for the research
Reframing of the methodology
• Continuation of longitudinal
survey
• One off self complete survey
• Qualitative interviews to gain
a life course perspective
• Focus groups with service
providers
Preliminary Findings
Longitudinal Study – friendship
scale scores
• Wave 1 range 0-15; mean 11.2
• Wave 2 range 7-24; mean 15.2
• Wave 3 range 1-24; mean 15.3
Preliminary Findings
Longitudinal Study – Period of time felt
lonely/isolated
30
25
20
15
Per cent
10
5
0
only a short
time ( a few
weeks)
for a few
months
for over a for a number a long time I don’t know
year
of years
Preliminary Findings
Longitudinal Study – Living arrangements
Per cent
70.0
60.0
50.0
40.0
30.0
Per cent
20.0
10.0
0.0
Live alone
Live with
partner
live with
live with
live with
live with
other family partner and unrelated
unrelated
members other family
people,
people, no
members companions relationship
Preliminary Findings
One off study – Over last 5 years ever felt
lonely or isolated
60
50
40
30
Per cent
20
10
0
No
Yes, but I don’t feel this
way now
Yes, I currently feel this
way
Preliminary Findings
“Mary” age 69
Wave 1 – Friendship Score =3
• Very busy working life (confessed workaholic) until struck down by
cancer has no friends outside of work.
• Moved to ILU - Lonely in new residence, is a distance from previous
home. Doesn’t know anyone.
Wave 3 - Friendship Score =15
“The program has improved my life by making me more open and able
to talk to people. They've given me an insight into where I can go and
what I can do.”
Preliminary Findings
“June” age 70:
Wave 1 – Friendship Score =3
• health problems.
• Disappointed with services offered - couldn’t provide her with
transport or any other services that she required.
Wave 3- Friendship Score-13
• Now receiving services from different provider.
• a cleaner comes fortnightly for 4 hours, BUT
• person takes her shopping; AND
• helped her to join a lunch club where she socialises with other
women then plays bingo in the afternoons.
Conclusion
• The older population are vulnerable to loneliness and social
isolation
• There is considerable interest in how to plan programs that best
assist people
• There are substantial difficulties in undertaking an exercise of
this kind
• Preliminary results are indicative of improvements in people’s
lives with some form of regular contact outside family
• We have a long way to go in analysing the data
Progress on the project and summary findings will be available at
www.adelaide.edu.au/churp