Psychiatric News (12/27) reports, “A volunteer program that engages lonely older adults in delivering psychosocial interventions to other lonely older adults benefited the volunteers themselves by reducing their loneliness, stress, and depressive symptoms and increasing their social engagement, according to study.” Researchers found that “volunteers reported medium-sized reductions in their loneliness on the UCLA and De Long Gierveld scales compared with the control group.”
Additionally, “the volunteer group reported increased engagement with their social network (small effect), decreased perceived stress (medium effect), and depressive symptoms after six months (small effect).” The findings were published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
Related Links:
— “Older Volunteers Delivering Loneliness Interventions Found to Be Less Lonely Themselves,” APA Psychiatric News Alert, December 27, 2023