Date

12-2020

Document Type

Capstone Project (Open Access)

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

Department

Health, Human Services and Public Policy

Major

Collaborative Health and Human Services

First Advisor

Andrea Ibessaine

Abstract

The agency I interned at for the last year and half was Visiting Nurses Association & Hospice (VNA). The problem that I was looking into was social isolation in our aging adult population. Social isolation is a growing problem as the baby boomers are retiring and becoming senior citizens. Contributing factors to this problem are; loneliness, disabilities, and a decrease in sensory abilities. The consequences are; mental health decline, a decline in their physical ability , and mortality. My capstone project was implementing a birthday celebration with a local skilled nursing facility to gather as many occupants together to get to engage instead of them isolating themselves. The data showed that if people were invited and encouraged to participate, there was a greater chance of them engaging with each other. The plan is to get them to at least one or two gatherings and in the end they no longer need to be encouraged to attend because this would be something that they look forward to every month. I would recommend this program to more of the skilled nursing facilities in the county to decrease social isolation.

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