Feasibility of school students Skyping care home residents to reduce loneliness

BACKGROUND: Intergenerational friendship has proved useful for older people in increasing socialisation. We explored the feasibility of school students Skyping older people in care homes with the long-term aim of reducing loneliness. METHODS: Six school students from one secondary school and twenty older people, including seven with mild to moderate dementia, from three care homes, engaged in Skype video-calls over six weeks. A conversational aid aimed to help school students maintain conversations was employed. Students and care staff completed feedback forms after each session on video-call usage, usefulness of the conversational aid, and barriers and benefits of video-calls. Six care staff provided further feedback on residents’ experiences through unstructured interviews. Interviews and field notes were thematically analysed. RESULTS: Residents enjoyed Skype-calls with school students. Over six weeks, video-calls became longer, and more residents participated. Analysis revealed four themes. First, the intervention led to increased mobility for three older people and improved self-care in regard to personal appearance for five residents. Second, school students and older people formed friendships which inspired the need to meet in person. Third, the use of video-calls enabled participants to view each other’s environments in real time. Last, directly experiencing the intervention was important for the continued participation of the care staff in the study. Skype-calls between schools and care homes are feasible and may help reduce loneliness. CONCLUSIONS: Institutional collaboration between educational settings and care homes through cost effective video-calls can be useful to increase socialisation for older people, and promote later on-going use with other external organisations to help reduce loneliness and social isolation.