Pilot study of a visitor volunteer programme for community elderly people receiving home health care
Abstract
There is a need to evaluate community support programmes for elderly people. In this randomized control trial (RCT), we determined the effectiveness of 'friendly visitors' in a volunteer programme of a visiting nurses organization in Southern Ontario, Canada. The Volunteer Friendly Visitor Programme was developed to support elderly people receiving homemaking and nursing care in the community. Volunteers are screened, trained, interviewed and matched to homebound elderly clients for general interest, visit expectations and personality. Volunteers spend three to four hours on average per week with clients socializing in mutually agreed-upon ways. The nursing staff identified clients who were lonely for this additional support. These newly-referred clients were randomly allocated to receive a friendly visitor or not for six weeks. Those receiving the volunteer visitor improved in life satisfaction and two social support measures: worth and social integration. Thus, the addition of volunteer visitors to planned homemaking and nursing care made a difference for elderly in the community.
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Of the two home visiting studies at moderate risk of bias, only one reported significant intervention effects.
“Of the two studies at moderate risk of bias [57,71], only one reported significant intervention effects.”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [71]
A volunteer home visiting intervention for community-dwelling older people in receipt of home nursing who were considered by their nurses to be socially isolated or lonely showed some evidence of improved social support at six weeks, with participants reporting increased social integration and feelings of worth.
“There was some evidence of improved social support at six weeks, as participants reported increased social integration and feelings of worth.”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [71]
Five out of 11 (45%) one-to-one interventions had a positive effect on at least one of the four social health sub-domains.
“This compares with five out of 11 (45%) one-to-one interventions [59,71,78,79,81].”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [71]
In the same volunteer home visiting intervention, no intervention effect was observed on the social support domains of intimacy, nurturance and guidance at six weeks.
“However, no intervention effect was observed on the social support domains of intimacy, nurturance and guidance at the same time point.”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [71]
All interventions delivered by counsellors and by students reported at least one beneficial effect.
“All interventions delivered by counsellors [53,54,73] and by students [59,66,71,78] reported at least one beneficial effect”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [71]
Three out of five (60%) home visiting interventions led to beneficial effects.
“Three out of five (60%) home visiting interventions led to beneficial effects [59,71,78]”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [71]
Seven out of 12 studies (58%) that recruited explicitly targeted participants reported positive effects on outcomes compared with 16 out of 20 (80%) studies with no explicit targeting.
“Seven out of 12 studies (58%) that recruited explicitly targeted participants reported positive effects on outcomes [13,56,67,71,75,78,79], compared with 16/20 (80%) studies with no explicit targeting [52-55,59,60,63,65,66,68-70,73,74,76,81].”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [71]
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Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review
Dickens, A. P., Richards, S. H., Greaves, C. J., & Campbell, J. L. (2011) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/1471-2458-11-647 · Cited by 767 · see citing works
- Authors
- MacIntyre, I., Corradetti, P., Roberts, J., Browne, G., Watt, S., & Lane, A.
- Affiliations
- St. Elizabeth Visiting Nurses, Volunteer Programme,
- Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Nursing,
- Faculty of Social Sciences, School of Social Work, Gerontological Studies and
- ORCID
- Watt, Susan
- Venue
- Health & Social Care in the Community
- Publisher
- Hindawi Limited
- Published
- 1999-05
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 225-232
- ISSN
- 0966-0410 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2524
- OpenAlex
- W2007136412
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 0.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Health & Social Care in the Community (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Aging, Elder Care, and Social Issues
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Aging, Health, and Disability
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering
- Keywords
- home health care, older adults, loneliness, social support, life satisfaction, nursing care, volunteer matching, visiting nurses
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