Effectiveness and sustainability of volunteering with older people living in care homes: A mixed methods systematic review

Handley, Melanie; Bunn, Frances; Dunn, Valerie; Hill, Carolyn J.; Goodman, Claire

doi:10.1111/hsc.13576

Cited by 6 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Interventions in LTC may have shown greater ESs for several reasons, including a higher prevalence of loneliness, and being accustomed to group living with shared programs and activities. 32,[122][123][124] A number of interventions among community-dwelling participants were not associated with reduced loneliness, potentially related to a highly heterogeneous population. 125,126 Interventions with social support meta-analysis generally had a smaller ES.…”

Section: Jama Network Open | Geriatricsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Interventions Associated With Reduced Loneliness and Social Isolation in Older Adults

et al. 2022

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ImportanceLoneliness and social isolation are public health concerns faced by older adults due to physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes that develop with aging. Loneliness and social isolation are associated with increased morbidity and mortality.ObjectiveTo evaluate interventions, targeting older adults, associated with a reduction in loneliness and social isolation.Data SourcesOVID, CINAHL, CENTRAL, Embase, PsychINFO, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched from inception to March 2020.Study SelectionPeer-reviewed randomized clinical trials measuring loneliness and social isolation or support in adults aged 65 years or older. Only English language articles were included.Data Extraction and SynthesisTwo independent reviewers screened studies, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias. Random-effects models were performed to pool the overall effect size by intervention. Statistical heterogeneity was evaluated with the I2 statistic and by estimating prediction intervals. Data were analyzed from November 2021 to September 2022.Main Outcomes and MeasuresQuantitative measures of loneliness, social isolation, or social support based on an effect size of standardized mean differences.ResultsSeventy studies were included in the systematic review (8259 participants); 44 studies were included in the loneliness meta-analysis (33 in the community with 3535 participants; 11 in long-term care with 1057 participants), with participants’ ages ranging from 55 to 100 years. Study sizes ranged from 8 to 741 participants. Interventions included animal therapy, psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy, multicomponent, counseling, exercise, music therapy, occupational therapy, reminiscence therapy, social interventions, and technological interventions. Most interventions had a small effect size. Animal therapy in long-term care, when accounting for studies with no active controls, had the largest effect size on loneliness reduction (−1.86; 95% CI, −3.14 to −0.59; I2 = 86%) followed by technological interventions (videoconferencing) in long-term care (−1.40; 95% CI, −2.37 to −0.44; I2 = 70%).Conclusions and RelevanceIn this study, animal therapy and technology in long-term care had large effect sizes, but also high heterogeneity, so the effect size’s magnitude should be interpreted with caution. The small number of studies per intervention limits conclusions on sources of heterogeneity. Overall quality of evidence was very low. Future studies should consider measures of social isolation in long-term care and identify the contextual components that are associated with a reduction in loneliness.

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Section: Jama Network Open | Geriatricsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Interventions Associated With Reduced Loneliness and Social Isolation in Older Adults

et al. 2022

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“…Volunteers, when selected from the local community, tend to have a better understanding of the community [20,21,25]. Choosing or preferring volunteers from already existing CBOs will give a sense of accountability, ownership, and the opportunity to establish networks [23,24,26,42,46].…”

Section: Serving One's Own Community (Belonging)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Training and retraining: This serves as a basic necessity for any CHV programme. Sensitisation of volunteers to the intervention and pre-interventional training is necessary, not only for sustainability but also for effective implementation and success of the programme [38,43,46,49,50,52].…”

Section: A Selection and Coordination: It Is Necessary To Considermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accountability: Reporting of services rendered to the community leaders or village health leaders or to the health team makes the CHV accountable to the community. This could always be supplemented with frequent record reviews, monitoring and observations, grievance redressal, and obtaining constructive feedback [41,46,49].…”

Section: A Selection and Coordination: It Is Necessary To Considermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In some studies supporting the same, CHVs had expressed their insecurities about continuing in the programme in case they are not granted proper recognition and identity. Volunteers have raised concerns about facing difficulty in carrying out community work without provision of identity cards and labelled T-shirts [27,32,43,45,46,51].…”

Section: Identity and Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Factors influencing the sustainability of a community health volunteer programme — A scoping review

Rajaa¹,

Palanisamy²

2022

IJME

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Background: Sustainability of any Community health worker programme is determined by several internal and external factors and is highly context and region specific. We aimed to identify factors that influence the sustainability of a community health volunteer programme across the globe. Methods: We conducted a scoping review using the Arksey and O’Malley framework. From four major databases, we extracted qualitative and quantitative peer-reviewed studies published in the English language, from January 2000 to March 2022, that reported on factors influencing sustainability of a community volunteer programme. We adopted a narrative synthesis form to report our findings. Results: Our search strategy yielded 1086 citations, of which 35 articles were finally included for the review after screening for eligibility. The studies included in our review reported an attrition rate ranging from 9 to 53%. The crucial factors that played a decisive role in sustainability included sociodemographic and sociocultural factors, trust, incentives, identity and recognition, sense of belonging, family support and other programme-related factors. Conclusion: Our study found that several complex personal and social factors affect the community health volunteers’ performance, thereby impacting the scaling up of a community volunteer programme. Efforts to address these factors would aid policy makers to successfully sustain a volunteership programme in resource-poor settings.

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“You’ve Got to Connect with the People”: The Meaning of, Preferences for, and Involvement in Social Participation for Older People Living in Nursing Homes in Victoria, Australia

Rayner,

Fetherstonhaugh,

McAuliffe

et al. 2024

Health & Social Care in the Community

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This research sought to explore the meaning of, preferences for, and involvement in social participation for older people living in nursing homes in Victoria, Australia. A qualitative descriptive study using semistructured interviews with twenty older people living in four geographically and ethnically diverse nursing homes was conducted between 2020 and 2022. Interview transcripts were thematically analysed. All the older people had been very socially active before moving into aged care and had participated in leisure and volunteering activities. Five themes emerged from the data analysis related to the meaning of, preferences for, and involvement in activities for social participation. The meaning of social participation among these older people varied. Some participated in group activities to keep active and busy, while others were content with interests of their own. Social participation in group activities provided older people with a connection to others and assisted in maintaining existing, or developing new, relationships. However, the ability to participate in group activities that offered opportunities for social participation was limited by age-related decline for some older people. The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions constrained activities, which provided opportunities for social participation for some older people living in nursing homes, but not all. These perspectives highlight the need for individualised person-centred opportunities for social participation in nursing homes. Group activities should enable older people to remain active and facilitate social connections that provide meaning and purpose. Respect for individual choice is important, as older people are not a homogeneous group, and opportunities to pursue individual activities should be facilitated.

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Effectiveness and sustainability of volunteering with older people living in care homes: A mixed methods systematic review

Cited by 6 publications

References 60 publications

Interventions Associated With Reduced Loneliness and Social Isolation in Older Adults

Interventions Associated With Reduced Loneliness and Social Isolation in Older Adults

Factors influencing the sustainability of a community health volunteer programme — A scoping review

“You’ve Got to Connect with the People”: The Meaning of, Preferences for, and Involvement in Social Participation for Older People Living in Nursing Homes in Victoria, Australia

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