Assignment on Social Isolation Among Older Adults

Running head: SOCIAL ISOLATION AMONG OLDER ADULTS
Social Isolation Among Older Adults
Meaza Senbete
WGU
C229

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The community nursing diagnostic statement is a statement which describes the heath
issues and health risks within a particular community and also provides strategies to resolve
them. It forms the basis for community based intervention. It is derived through efficient
clinical decision making from the analysis of the data collected during assessment. It is found
that the elder people specially who are above 55-60 years of age, suffer from depression and
other mental health disorder, along with cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, obesity
owing to social isolation and loneliness. About 20-22% of the older adults in the United
States have been found to suffer from loneliness, which in turn affects their well-being. The
reason for social isolation among the elderly people may be due to sudden demise of a loved
one. Almost 72% of the socially isolated women aged 85-89 years are found to be widowed,
some of them are retired from their work. Social isolation can also happen due to physical
disabilities or mobility impairments; and lastly it can occur as a result of poverty which leads
to a financial insecurity, thus exacerabating the social isolation among the older people.
Looking at the concern of social isolation on the health of the older people, in USA, an
organization named “Humana” have provide a toolkit for overcoming loneliness and social
isolation among people. Their aim is to promote social bonding through cognitive behaviour
therapy or social skill training and to prevent the occurrence of loneliness with the help of
community awareness and certain educational programs.
Social isolation is a state of disconnectedness where an individual feels physically
separated from other people and likes to be on their own. The persons break all the
connection with the society, does not keep any contact with other individuals and totally
isolates themselves. Social isolation is mostly noticed in elder peoples, as they grow older
their social circle gets smaller, children and grandchildren gradually drift away making them
lonely and isolated(De Witte & Van Regenmortel, 2019). It has severe impact on the health
of the older people causing depression or decline of cognitive abilities, and other serious

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health issues like cardiovascular problems, obesity and dementia. Several other factors are
also related to social isolation among the older people, such as, financial problems due to low
income, for which they could not afford the expenses required for participating in social
networks. These peoples are also unable to participate in normal relationship and other social
activities. Social isolation is an issue of health inequality because of the risk factors
associated with it. Social isolated leads to poor mental heath and depression and increases the
risk of mortality. Depression increases the aggregation of platelets in the blood through the
loss of function of serotonin, thus increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. Other
complications include increased heart rate and release of adrenaline, which in turn, increases
the risk of arrhythmia. Studies suggest that, depression increase the risk of mortality by 25%.
Research studies found that isolated people have an increased desire to smoke, which
increases their risk of cardiovascular disease(Al-Kandari & Al-Sejari, 2018). Loneliness also
escalates the risk of dementia through increased secretion of cortisol which leads to stress and
high blood pressure. And some evidence suggest that loneliness reduces the immune system
of the people therefore increasing the risk of infections.
There are many primary health care centers, social services and civic centers available
which address the concern of social isolation midst the older people and helps them in
dealing with loneliness by giving emotional and mental support. Their primary aim is to
make those people feel that they are not alone in this world, and assure them that they will get
support and assistance whenever they want(Seyfzadeh, Hagighatian & Mohajerani, 2017).
The field experience was conducted among the different cities of the United States and the
results showed high prevalence of social isolation among the older adults. It was found the
the olser people aged over 65 years of age had a higher risk of being socially isolated owing
to age related alteration in health condition. 20% of them said that they had vision and
hearing problem and were not able to move due to impairment of mobility. Around 42% of

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the older adults reported feeling lonely and 25% were socially isolated. It was found that the
adults who were lonely or socially isolated had a higher risk of dementia, had more doctor
vist and have high rates of mortality.
The purpose of the social media campaign is to prevent or reduce loneliness and
isolation among the older people with the help of social media platforms and social media
marketing tools which helps in spreading awareness among people about the heath risks of
social isolation and encourage people to take care of their parents and grandparents by
supporting and interacting with them. The community based social marketing intervention is
an approach aimed to ensure the well-being of people by chaning their lifestyle or
maintaining their behaviour, for the benefit of their own and the whole society. It helps in
bringout a positive attitude and behaviour in people. The older people spent most of their
alone, so they at risk for loniliness, so an intervention should be made which will promote
their social connectedness and also ensure that they are living a happy life. This can be done
by:
Encouraging them to take part in social activities or physical activities – Participating in
social activities, sports or yoga helps the older people to remain engaged and also keep
themselves physically and mentally fit.
Suggesting them to interact with their neighbours, increase their friend circle – a stronger
friend circle will ensure, stronger connection. The older people should go out and
communicate with their neighbours and friends, spent quality time them. This reduces their
isolatedness and makes them feel lively.
Delivering them service provisions – the older people should be provided with transportation
for their convinience along with provision of 24x7 hours health services

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Social media is a good platform for health promotion and spreading awareness among
people through effective communication, nowadays everyone uses social media, so it will be
reach a greater mass of people. Apart from spreading awareness, it is also used to educate
people and change their attitude and behaviour for achieving better health conditions. It give
the freedom or liberty for the people to engage themselves, express their personal views and
opinions without the fear of being judged.
Facebook is the most popular social media platforms all around the world, so it can be
chosen to spread awareness on social isolation of elder people. It helps in enhancing the
connectivity between people, promote interaction between individuals belonging to any
community, caste or religion(Chen & Schulz, 2016). It can be used for a noble cause such as
promoting social welfare activities and involving NGOs, who helps to create social
awareness among people and assist them in bringing out a positive change in their life. It also
helps in buiding communities based on one’s interest and hobbies. It helps in mental health
promotion by promoting communication and interaction among people, thus lowering the
chance of depression and anxiety.It will help the older people to reconnect with their
childhood friends, or family members with just a click(Khosravi, Rezvani & Wiewiora,
2016). They will be able to revive and relive the old memories they shared together. This
feeling of connectedness and togetherness stimulates happiness and mental satisfaction
among people, making them feel they are being supported and cared by others.
The CDC has developed a toolit of best practices for applying the social media tools
for health marketing purpose. It acts as a guide for the social media platforms to provide
healthcare campaigns. The most crucial tool for developing an effective social media
campaign is developing a professional insight, by being aware about their instinct, their
objectives, target population, bujdget and goals(Alalwan et al, 2017). The most wide used
marketing tools are images, sharing of videos, e-cards, podcast and blogs. The first initiative

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is to make a plan or campaign, build an interesting story to engage people, do enquiry about
the issues they have and listen to them carefully, make arrangements for solving their issues,
build a strong and trustworthy team, perform constant monitoring and evaluation, keep the
channels updated, provide support and assistant to the team members, modify the strategies
according to the needs of the public.
Social media campaign implementation plan:
Role of stakeholders: The stakeholders which are associated with the social media
campaign on prevention of isolation among elder people are the customers, healthcare
providers such as the nurses and physicians, NGOs, primary care centers. The customers or
clients are the people who are facing the issue. The nurses help in educating the people about
the risk factors which are linked with social isolation amongst the elder people and sharing
with them the necessary prevention strategies to eradiate the loneliness of the senior people.
The physicians are responsible for treating the older people suffering from depression, mental
problems and other health issues. NGOs help in spreading social awareness among people
(Wang & Kim, 2017).
Potential Partnership: The potential partners include the social media networks such
as facebook and twitter, which helps to connect with the older people easily, encourage them
to interact and share their health issues, giving them liberty to share their opinion and views.
Creating timeline: The estimated timeline for implementing the plan will be about four
weeks. The first few weeks will be responsible for stakeholder engagement through meetings
and conferences. It will help in planning the obhective of the campaign and further research
will be carried on for the next week. Finally, on the last week, the monitoring and evaluation
of the outcome will take place(Felix, Rauschnabel & Hinsch, 2017)

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Evaluation of effectiveness of program: The effectiveness of the social campaign will
be reflected in the response of the elder people, their satisfaction level. If they are happy and
satisfied with the campaign, there will be positive feedbacks form their end. The rates of
depression and mental illness among them will be reduced greatly
Cost of implemention of plan: The social media managers charge approximately $20 – $30
per hour initiallyb which means that each client is worth $300 – $750 per month.
The social media helps in the empowerment of the nurses as they educate the
consumers about the available resources, helps them to reach out to the local
communities(Medvene et al, 2016). With the help of social media, the nurses and other
healthcare professionals connects with the common mass, educate the community about
health issues and risk factors, make them aware about the latest development in the field of
medicines, thus facilitating patient engagement in the healthcare system. Nurses use social
media for encouraging consumers to promote organizational treatment and health services,
promoting health awareness by sharing of health information to more and more people.
Integrating social media into nursing practice can result in better engagement and
interaction with the patients and consumers, allowing the nurses to better understand the
patient condition, analyse their health issues and provide prevention strategies to
overcomethe issue, it also helps them to move a step closer towards effective leadership.
With the help of social media, they can easily connect with their colleagues, share
information regarding best practices(Gallagher & Russ, 2017).

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REFERENCE
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Al-Kandari, Y. Y., & Al-Sejari, M. M. (2018). Health, Stress, and Social Isolation among the
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De Witte, J., & Van Regenmortel, T. (2019). SILVER EMPOWERMENT. Loneliness and
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