The purpose of this study is to ascertain the feasibility and effectiveness of an 8-week social engagement program aimed at reducing depression and increasing social engagement among seniors who are transitioning out of Adult Protective Services (APS) for either elder abuse or self-neglect.
an APS validated EM/SN case
able to provide informed consent
able to speaks English or Spanish
able to hear sufficiently using the telephone
Individuals needing a proxy to consent
suspected or confirmed decision-making capacity impairments or uncontrolled psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia, paranoia, delusion, or delirium
Parallel
Stepped-care social and mental health engagement
BehavioralEach student will be matched to an older adult and the students will make one call o the older adult which lasts upto 1 hour each week for 8 weeks. Ending each call, the student will assess symptoms of depression anxiety through questionnaires. If the participant responds yes on two consecutive calls to any of these questions, they will be asked if they would like to receive a call from the University of Texas Health Science Center Trauma and Resilience Center to discuss free counseling services.
APS Usual care
BehavioralParticipants will receive a phone call for data collection. Then they will be offered to receive an abbreviated version of the stepped-care social and mental health engagement intervention, lasting only 6-weeks with the option to continue calls if agreeable between the student and older adult.
Change in social isolation assessed by the Duke Social Support Index (DSSI-6)
This is a 6-item questionnaire and each is measured from 1(hardly ever) to 3(most of the time) for a maximum score of 18, higher score indicating greater social support
Change in loneliness as assessed by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA )loneliness scale
This is a 20-item questionnaire , each item is rated 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") for a score range of 0-3,for a maximum score of 60, higher score indicating worse outcome
Change in depression as assessed by the PATIENT HEALTH QUESTIONNAIRE (PHQ-9)
This is a 9 item questionnaire and each is scored from 0(not at all) to 3(nearly every day) , for a maximum score of 27 , higher score indicating more depression
Recurrence of Elder mistreatment (EM)
This is a yes or no questionnaire that will be answered by adult protective services (APS)
Change in anxiety as assessed by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7)
This is a 7-item questionnaire , each is scored from 0(not at all) to 3(nearly every day), for a score range of 0-21 higher score indicating more anxiety
Change in resilience as assessed by the Brief Resilience Scale
This is a 6-item questionnaire, questions 1, and 5 are scored from 1(strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree) and questions 2, 4 and 6 are reverse scored , for a score range of 6-30. The total score is then divided by the number of questions answered to get the final score. higher score indicating more resilience.
Change in Anxiety as Assessed by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 2-Item Scale (GAD-2)
This is a 2 item questionnaire and each is scored from 0(not at all) to 3( nearly every day).Total scores range from 0 to 6, with higher scores indicating greater anxiety symptom severity. A score of ≥3 is considered a positive screen for clinically significant anxiety.
Change in Depressive Symptoms as Assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2)
This is a 2 item questionnaire and each is scored from 0(not at all) to 3(nearly every day) for a total score range of 0-6,higher scores indicate greater depressive symptom severity
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The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
Lead sponsor
Department of Health and Human Services
Collaborator
