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With a $ 1.3 million grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), researchers are developing and evaluating the Belonging and Empathy, With Intentional Targeted Helping (BE WITH) project, designed to reduce ‘social isolation, loneliness and the high risk of suicide in the elderly of different races, the demographic group most affected by COVID-19.
Georgia State University associate professor Laura Shannonhouse, doctoral student Mary Chase Mize, and Matthew Fullen of Virginia Tech are evaluating the effectiveness of the training program for nutrition service volunteers who work with seniors in six Metro Atlanta counties .
The researchers hope to show that BE WITH should be added to the National Council on Aging program registry, a necessary step that allows states to access federal Title IIID funds to equip their networks with suicide prevention resources.
Their grant work builds on an earlier DHHS-funded research grant Shannonhouse conducted in Metro Atlanta before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. His team monitored more than 51 suicide surgeries conducted by nutrition service volunteers shortly before the pandemic. They learned that these volunteers acquired suicidal intervention skills and used them.
Nutrition service volunteers are often a life link for homebound seniors and are in a unique position to offer life assistance interventions when needed. “
Laura Shannonhouse, Associate Professor, Georgia State University
In addition to the development and evaluation of the BE WITH project, the grant funding supports the research team’s efforts to assess the impact of COVID-19 on mental health in older adults. They have already found that older adults’ suicidal desire has increased in the wake of the pandemic with some participants. They are looking at thwarted membership and perceived burden, which together sum up the desire for suicide and are likely exacerbated by COVID-19. Physical distancing interventions needed to protect the elderly are isolating, and ethical COVID-19 treatment guidelines tend to prioritize care for younger patients.
Shannonhouse and her colleagues will evaluate the responsive behaviors of nutrition service volunteers with older adults at risk in real time – such as empathic connections and suicide intervention over time – and the potential benefits of these behaviors on reduced depression, anxiety, suicidal desire, suicidal behaviors; and greater social support and well-being among the elderly.
“We hope to demonstrate how nutrition services can reduce social isolation, loneliness, and the high risk of suicide among the elderly by providing volunteers to be with them during COVID-19 and beyond,” Shannonhouse said.
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