The Effectiveness of Peer-to-Peer Community Support to Promote Aging in Place

Summary

The investigators' overall objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of peer-to-peer support programs in preventing the necessity of acute health care and nursing home services for older adult populations and in promoting their health and wellness. The investigators' Specific Aims are:

1. To compare the effectiveness of peer-to-peer community support in preventing hospitalization, emergency department (ED) use, and nursing home placement in an at-risk older adult population relative to standard community services.
2. To compare the effect of peer-to-peer community support on intermediary measures of health and wellness such as self-rated health, depression, and anxiety relative to standard community services.

Conditions

• Wellness Programs
• Hospitalization
• Emergency Room

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Peer-to-Peer Support

All three data collection sites run peer-to-peer community support programs. Core program elements include the same program objective, standard definition of who qualifies for peer-to-peer support, the mechanism by which older adults are referred for consideration for peer-support, core elements of training programs for the older adults who volunteer to provide the peer support, and monthly in-service trainings for all volunteers once trained, weekly hours that volunteers spend providing support, and provision of small stipends for volunteers.As they find their role very rewarding, there is very little peer turn-over; the vast majority of peers volunteer for years in this role, until they themselves start requiring services.

BEHAVIORAL

Standard Community Services

All three data collection sites will continue to provide standard community services to the older adults that are not enrolled in the peer-to-peer support program

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Community Place

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Alpert Jewish Family And Childrens Service

  collaborator OTHER

• Alliance for Children and Families

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Wisconsin, Madison

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Elizabeth A Jacobs, MD MPP · UMadison

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-03-31

Primary Completion

2017-12-31

Completion

2017-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations