The Supporting Older Adults & Caregivers: Integrative Service Learning (SOCIAL) partnership trains undergraduate social work students to provide practical home-based support for older adults with chronic illness and their family caregivers, serving as a pipeline for future leaders in older adult care. More than 2 million older adults are…

Purpose: Telehealth care is emerging as a viable intervention model to treat complex chronic conditions, such as heart failure (HF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and to engage older adults in self-care disease management. Design and Methods: We report on a randomized controlled trial examining the impact of a multifaceted…

Community-based frail older adults, burdened with complex medical and social needs, are at great risk for preventable rapid rehospitalizations. Although federal and state regulations are in place to address the care transitions between the hospital and nursing home, no such guidelines exist for the much larger population of community-dwelling…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify relationships between medical, functional, economic, oral health, social, religious, and psychological factors and under-eating in homebound older adults. The focus of the study was on identifying potentially modifiable factors amenable to social and behavioral interventions. Design and Methods: A…

Conducting research in the home setting with homebound older adults presents distinct ethical and practical challenges that require special consideration. This article describes the methodological issues that make studying homebound older adults especially vulnerable to therapeutic misconception and researcher role conflict and offers practical…

Purpose: As funds have increased for the provision of in-home care, so too have concerns about the quality of services. In response, care management agencies and home-care providers have developed an array of monitoring activities designed to ensure the quality of services. In this article, we show how an area agency on aging both collected and…

Describes the Housebound Learners Project, a London-area program using volunteer tutors to bring adult education to homebound persons. Discusses course and topic selection and outreach in minority communities. (SK)

The rural Montana Befrienders program pairs homebound older adults with volunteers aged 19-35 for companionship and assistance. Formal and informal evaluation identified benefits for seniors, their families, and volunteers. Most of the elders wanted volunteers to spend more time with them. (SK)

In the Befrienders program, young adults visited, interacted with, and assisted homebound, isolated older adults. Participants (20 younger, 22 older) and the seniors' family members identified numerous benefits and valued the intergenerational relationships that were formed. (SK)

Homebound elderly adults experience more nutrition-related problems than their active age peers. This paper reports on the development, implementation, and evaluation of a demonstration program for training social workers serving the homebound in a large urban area agency on aging. Evaluations indicated that the training was favorably received and…

A review of the kinds of jobs available in services developed to help the homebound elderly: Home health care, homemaker-home health aide, chore service, home repair and maintenance, home-delivered meals, telephone reassurance, and friendly visiting. (JT)

Purpose: Healthful eating is important for optimal diabetes self-care. However, the level of food sufficiency may influence the degree of adherence to dietary self-care behaviors through the affordability of nutritionally appropriate food. This study examines whether homebound older adults with diabetes were at greater risk for heightened food…

This manual for trainers provides a suggested course, along with background programming information, for personnel delivering recreation services to the homebound elderly. After assessing current needs, steps involved in the development of a homebound recreation program are considered along with agency administrative concerns. The actual planning…

The authors explain how role playing helps home health aides learn to cope with common problems that arise in their work with the homebound elderly and their families. (CT)

Describes a books by mail program developed by the San Francisco (California) Public Library to extend free mail service to homebound patrons, including both older users and users with disabilities. Discusses previous library service; planning, including working with the Postal Service; and costs. (LRW)