The goals of this project are to promote and maintain the mental health of elderly women living independently in the community. The project is a field test of a preventive intervention by which peer telephone dyads are developed for socially vulnerable (low income and below the median on perceived social support) at-risk elderly women. Among the elderly, poor social support has been linked to depression, low levels of mood and life satisfaction, and to increased risk for death. However, the mechanisms by which social ties and social support exert their influence on health and well-being remain unknown. The current proposal is the first step in a series of field studies in which indigenous support providers are trained to provide specific facets of support so that the effects of different types of support can be compared. After an initial assessment, subjects will participate in ten weeks of bi-weekly staff telephone contacts. Ten weeks of peer contacts and ten weeks of follow-up will occur after the period of staff contact. The procedure developed in this study will allow us to determine the characteristics of those elderly who are most successful in initiating and maintaining peer contacts. This will be accomplished through an initial assessment of social skills, and also by content analysis of two telephone conversations with staff members to be recorded for each subject. Subjects in the peer contact groups will be randomly assigned to initiate or receive the contact so that initiator and receiver roles can be compared. Both groups also will be compared with no-contact controls, peer contact refusers and subjects who continue staff contact. Dependent variables will be measures of perceived social support, morale, depression, social activity and health.
| Heller, K; Thompson, M G; Trueba, P E et al. (1991) Peer support telephone dyads for elderly women: was this the wrong intervention? Am J Community Psychol 19:53-74 |
| Heller, K (1990) Social and community intervention. Annu Rev Psychol 41:141-68 |
| Thompson, M G; Heller, K (1990) Facets of support related to well-being: quantitative social isolation and perceived family support in a sample of elderly women. Psychol Aging 5:535-44 |
| Hogg, J R; Heller, K (1990) A measure of relational competence for community-dwelling elderly. Psychol Aging 5:580-8 |
| Heller, K (1989) The return to community. Am J Community Psychol 17:1-15 |
