In the wake of the deadly, worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, a widespread wave of fear and concern for the future has emerged among just about everyone. Nobody is immune to the virus, however some groups of people run a higher risk of being more affected by it than others. One of these major demographics with an increased risk of greater effects and more likely to die due to complications from COVID-19 is the elderly. Because of previous external research, our team determined that the mental health effects of the virus could have been just as damaging as the physical effects for elderly people as a whole. This caused our research outcomes to be primarily focused on gauging the mental states of the elderly in our communities in an attempt to learn what we can do to solve this issue.

In April and May of 2020, I was involved in a research project with the Peace Innovation Institute where we gathered and analyzed data from people aged 65 and higher to better understand how the elderly were being affected by the pandemic. We found that isolation would cause negative impacts on the maintenance of sufficient mental health in elderly people across the globe. This post will give background on how we performed our outreach and take a look at our original findings.

Background

The first question that came to mind when we were breaking ground with this project was how we were going to reach the elderly demographic because they had been advised to isolate themselves from their families and friends for their own safety. We found that over 90% of people between the ages of 65-75 use mobile phones, and almost 35% of them are involved in social media, with Facebook being the most popular platform. From there we decided to conduct the majority of our outreach in Facebook groups along with contacting elderly people we are typically in contact with during normal times.

After some discussion, the group came up with a hopefully efficient way to keep the elderly socially engaged while collecting data on how they are being affected by the pandemic at the same time. Since the elderly are typically not the most “tech savvy” group of people, it would be difficult to gather data from them through the internet and social media as is being done for other demographics.

To compensate for this, we generated a set of questions that can be given over the phone by someone with whom an elderly person is usually in contact with under normal circumstances. This process should theoretically be very beneficial on a few different levels. It would engage elderly people in social conversation with someone close to them, which would help to make the subject feel less isolated, ultimately contributing to maintaining positive mental health for the subject.

The phone call would also allow us to gather very useful information and data from the elderly population that is difficult to reach during these times of social isolation. It was a good reason for someone to call their parents or grandparents and take a few minutes to interview them while keeping their mind stimulated during these strange times.

Findings

The questions that we asked were mostly based around levels of distress that people were feeling due to being isolated from the rest of the world and how they were coping with the effects of the pandemic. What we found was much more positive than we originally expected. Only about half of the participants in the experiment reported that they were feeling more distressed than usual, and the vast majority of participants had seen a large increase in positive interactions taking place in both their relationships and communities.

Here are a few quotes from anonymous participants in our research about how the virus has affected their everyday lives:

“I am unable to see my kids and grandkids who usually help me with household tasks and groceries. I am worried for my daughter who is a nurse.”

“As a socially adept introvert, staying at home is less isolating for me than others. As a retired RN, it’s hard not to be able to work on the front lines, so I have become a mask maker.”

“I live in a 55+ community. We’ve worked hard to watch out for each other; touch base, run errands, gather in small groups - at appropriate distance.”

“I quilt every day for the injured military. I have been doing this for 14 years. It keeps me happy and busy. I am not bored as so many people say they are.”

Obviously these statements do not account for all of the elderly people affected by the pandemic, but it did give us a very positive outlook on the issues that were found in our original research findings. Those who participated seem to be much better off than we had anticipated, which is fantastic!

You can learn more about the project here.

Conclusion

The purpose of our experiment was to reach out to the elderly demographic in order to see what issues they are facing during the global pandemic, with an emphasis on mental health. Our findings were mostly positive, but there is always room for more to be done to help others! If you are interested in learning more about other research projects that were conducted with the COVID-19 pandemic, visit the PeaceX Global Response Initiative page!