Date of Award

Spring 2017

Document Type

Capstone Project

Degree Name

Doctorate

Department

Occupational Therapy

Faculty Mentor

Trudy Mallinson, PhD, OTR/L FAOTA

Abstract

Social isolation is the absence of meaningful contact with others. Older adults who perceived themselves as socially isolated are at risk of negative health outcomes. A person’s psychological wellbeing can be improved through engaging in meaningful leisure activities.

The Intergenerational Social Engagement Program, or the ISEP, was developed to connect older adults and high school students to help decrease social isolation in older adults. The ISEP incorporates concepts from the Canadian Model of Occupational Performance and is intended for implementation in senior living communities. The program is to be led by an occupational therapist. Occupational therapy practitioners have an understanding of the complex and dynamic transactional relationship between client factors, performance skills, performance patterns, and activity demands, as well as the contexts and environments in which the occupation is performed. The occupational therapist identifies older adults with perceived social isolation using the Lubben Social Network Scale-6. The program entails engaging high school students to visit an older adult in the senior living community, and using leisure occupations to promote social participation. ISEP is expected to have benefits for both generations by decreasing social isolation in older adults and improving high school student’s social skills and insights into aging.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Comments

© 2017 Jacqueline Kendona.

Download

Share

COinS