Friendly Calls to Seniors: an Interprofessional Student Volunteer Program

• Published in: The American journal of geriatric psychiatry 2021-04, Vol.29 (4), p.S130-S132
• Main Authors: Nathanson, Mark, Rau, Sonalee, Jiang, Enoch, Phyllis, Simon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1064-7481; 1545-7214
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jagp.2021.01.126

Older adults compose a segment of the population who are especially vulnerable to loneliness and isolation and have been disproportionately impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.[1],[2],[3],[4] Evidence shows traditional social support programs enhance their health and well-being; the current pandemic provides an opportunity to understand the potential benefits of virtual social support.[5],[6] Friendly Calls to Seniors (FCS) is an interprofessional student volunteer program that is part of Columbia University's COVID-19 Student Service Corps (CSSC), founded at the outset of the pandemic. Utilizing a script developed by student leaders and faculty advisors from Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), volunteers regularly call older adults with underlying mental health conditions. The calls provide social support and opportunities to identify and refer health concerns to care providers, thereby addressing both medical and social needs this group faces, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. FCS is a phone call-based social support program in which student volunteers provide companionship and conduct health risk assessments for interested clients, who are older adults with underlying psychiatric conditions referred by clinical providers in the Washington Heights region of Manhattan. Student volunteers are on-boarded, HIPAA-trained, and supervised by two student leaders, as well as two faculty members of CUIMC, a geriatric psychiatrist and an occupational therapist. Volunteers use a HIPAA-compliant platform to securely call clients, using a translator if necessary. Calls are conducted using a script, which includes a suggested introduction, sample conversational topics, and a risk assessment for health and functioning that incorporates psychiatric and occupational considerations. The script also includes an escalation flowchart to refer client issues to the attention of the faculty supervisors to be connected with social workers, medical professionals, or community resources. Calls are tracked through secure survey forms and project metrics are tabulated weekly. The volunteer team convenes in weekly Zoom meetings to review volunteer-client interactions and pose questions that may have arisen. The project has integrated educational workshops from other organizations such as Columbia's Narrative Medicine Program. The student and faculty leadership also collaborates with community-based organizations and naturally occurring retirement c