The Impact of Social Phone Calls With Isolated Older Adults Receiving Protective Services for Abuse, Neglect and/or Exploitation

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The purpose of this study is to see the the impact of social visits, through weekly phones calls, on quality of life outcomes of depression, anxiety, loneliness, isolation and self-rated health for older adults visited by Adult Protective Services (APS) for abuse, neglect and/or exploitation (ANE) and to also to determine the benefit of these conversations on the medical student's perspective of aging and ANE.

Official Title
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The Impact of Social Phone Calls With Isolated Older Adults Receiving Protective Services for Abuse, Neglect and/or Exploitation

Conditions
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Senior Abuse

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Treatment


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: recently visited by Texas Adult Protective Services for Abuse, Neglect and/or Exploitation living in Harris County or a surrounding county serviced by APS District 6 substantiated elder mistreatment (i.e. psychological abuse, financial exploitation, sexual abuse, neglect, physical abuse) and/or self neglect provide a signed or verbal release agreeing to be contacted by the volunteers able to provide verbal consent to participate in the study Exclusion Criteria: significant cognitive impairment or incapacity as determined by their inability to complete the consent steps Non-English-speaking

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 65 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Treatment<br> | Other: Treatment<br>* Following the collection of the baseline data, the study participant will be assigned to a volunteer(medical student) to begin the social phone calls. The first phone call will be scheduled to occur within one week of the consent and baseline assessments. A minimum of one social phone call will occur each week for 6-weeks. Each phone call is expected to last up to 1 hour.The calls will be unstructured and designed simply to engage in conversation with the participant. The length of the phone calls, days and times will be recorded by the volunteer along with a short journal entry describing the conversation topics and any information that stood out to the volunteer.At the end of the 6-weeks phone calls, a group session will be held with the volunteers to engage in a debriefing and narrative medicine session.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Change in Social isolation as assessed by the patient-reported outcomes measurement information system (PROMIS) Social Isolation Scale | This is a 4 item questionnaire and each question is scored from 1(never) to 5(always) a higher number indicating more isolation | Baseline, 6 week follow up | 
| Change in Anxiety as assessed by the Geriatric Anxiety Scale | This is a 10 item questionnaire and each question is scored form 0(not at all) to 3(most of the time),a higher number indicating more anxiety | Baseline, 6 week follow up | 
| Change in Depression as assessed by the Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form | This is a 15 item questionnaire and each is answered either yes or no. One point is given for No to question 1, 5, 7, 11, 13 and one point for Yes to other questions. Normal ± 2 Mildly Depressed 7 ± 3 Very Depressed 12 ± 2 | Baseline, 6 week follow up | 
| Change in Loneliness as assessed by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA ) Loneliness Scale | A 20-item scale that measures the subjective experience of loneliness on a four-point Likert scale. Participants rate each item as either O (I often feel this way),S (I sometimes feel this way), R (I rarely feel this way), N (I never feel this way). | Baseline, 6 week follow up | 
| Change in perceived general health as assessed by the Self-Rated Health Question | The participant will rate their health as excellent, very good, good, fair or poor | Baseline, 6 week follow up | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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depression, anxiety, loneliness, isolation, adult protective services