ACOMPANYEM: A COMmunity Program Accessing Lonely, Disabled Neighbors (Young, Elder, and Midlife)

Plain-language summary

Social prescription prioritizes interventions for people at risk of social isolation or unwanted loneliness based on community assets and offers them a series of activities that can contribute to their emotional well-being as a healthy alternative to medicalized healthcare. Disabled homebound people deal with more difficulty accessing the social health assets available in the community. Volunteers from the same neighborhood may accomplish the social function of accompaniment and listening accessing them at home or walking them out to attain social prescription goals. The Community Emotional Well-Being Referent (REBEC) may enhance all of this by conducting emotional counseling and management groups for volunteers. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a community intervention of accompaniment and emotional management with volunteers on the unwanted loneliness of people with social isolation, their emotional well-being, and their quality of life. METHODOLOGY: a community-based quasi-experimental non-randomized pre-post intervention study with control group, and a qualitative study. Candidate detection by the Driving Group, composed of neighborhood organizations and the community health team, was conducted opportunistically. Recruitment of isolated individuals and volunteers was carried out, with registration based on inclusion criteria. Implementation of the multi-level intervention for volunteers and isolated individuals took place at home or by participating in community resources on the street, with parallel support groups for volunteers using REBEC. Each round of participants was followed for three months, continuing until the sample was complete. Qualitative analysis was conducted upon reaching information saturation. In cases where architectural barriers were detected, technical aids (such as portable stairlifts) were proposed, and their impact was studied.

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