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PART II. EVALUATING FIT/READINESS, MEASURING IMPACT, COLLECTING DATA

A successful telewellness program is a collaboration of senior-serving organizations using technology-based tools to support the mental health and wellbeing needs of older adults. It should produce positive community impacts, and help residents understand, discuss, and address mental health and wellness challenges.

Older adult residents at Front Porch affordable housing communities discussed with their counselors and therapists on a wide range of concerns and subjects.

  • Relationship conflict with family
  • Caregiving role for adult child and grandchild
  • General loneliness
  • Adjustment difficulty to sudden diagnosis on memory loss
  • Grief issues
  • Loss of function (i.e. driving)
  • Conflict with management
  • Dealing with life-long trauma
  • Abuse and neglect
  • General aging issues
  • Health deterioration

Sudden illness Several key program ingredients will be critical to ensure continued success and sustainability. The engagement and involvement of key community stakeholders as champions will serve as important site organizers and coordinators of their respective communities. Each community will assign a staff member volunteer responsible for outreach, project recruitment, marketing, and the coordination/delegation of addressing technical support issues.

Other reasons for measuring impact through data:

  • Evaluating success
  • Providing a basis for funding and staff resourcing opportunities
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  1. Assessing operational culture; establish staff and resident receptiveness

    Finding the right champion for the job

    Someone who’s passionate
    Willing to approach residents in the face of stigma

  2. Establishing current conditions among older adult members: baseline surveys, behavioral health tools; tracking and reporting during program

    Data collection is an integral part of success.

    Using pre- and post-surveys, focus groups, and interviews, your team should be equipped and ready with an array of data tools that measure impact and help craft a narrative of technology solutions designed to help meet the needs of older adults and their caregivers.

    The sharing of project lessons and stories is crucial to the regeneration of ideas, diffusion of successes, and the cultivation of partnerships. Your website and/ or social media outlets should act as an expression of the spirit of collaboration and storytelling to share and celebrate your wins throughout this process. Brief narratives may provide snapshots and the creation of videos will help spark creativity and inspiration, and also link to reports/ data that detail your programming process, impact measurements, participant engagement highlights, data findings, and engagement strategies.

    Example surveys we created:

    • iPad Use Surveys (LINK)
    • Workshop Surveys (LINK)
    • Exit Survey (LINK)

    The impact of Telewellness on social engagement

    Using specific data tools that are publicly available will help to further shed light on the impact of Telewellness on social engagement and loneliness amongst your resident participants. For example, participants of the Telewellness project will complete surveys such as:

    • Quality of Life WHOQOL: Measuring Quality of Life survey (LINK)
    • Lubben Social Network Scale (LINK)
    • PHQ-9 Questionnaire (LINK)

    Consider evaluation of:

      • Usability
      • Feasibility
      • User Satisfaction
      • Usefulness
      • Impact on Quality of Life, isolation
      • Impact on health and mental health outcomes (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, depression, etc.)
      • Impact on healthcare utilization (e.g., reduced need for ED admissions)testUsabilityEfficacy: Evaluate factors associated with how effective the program is in achieving the following types of outcomes:
    2. Adoption: Evaluate factors associated with adoption of the program, including how many people consented to use the program and its components (hardware and software devices, services, etc.), how long it took for them to start using it, how did their first interactions work, and how many people stayed with the program beyond that first use/interaction. This will help us understand the factors associated with adoption and optimize these in a future iteration of the program.
    3. Engagement: Evaluate factors associated with engagement of the program, including how often participants used the program, how they used it, and how they derived value from it. We will also evaluate whether high engagement with the program resulted in better outcomes, compared to modest or low engagement, as well as factors (demographics, programmatic factors among others) associated with better engagement with the program.
    4. Implementation: Evaluate factors associated with implementation of the program, including factors affecting the speed of implementation, any barriers and facilitators as well as key metrics associated with successful implementation, like meeting enrollment goals, project timelines, participant support and troubleshooting needs in a timely manner, etc.

    At FPCIW

    Dr. Hagedorn research here…