SERVICE: Social and Emotional Resilience for the Vulnerable Impacted by the COVID-19 Emergency
Lead Research Organisation:
The Open University
Department Name: Faculty of Sci, Tech, Eng & Maths (STEM)
Abstract
The social distancing imposed by COVID-19 is likely to effect unprecedented psychological impacts. This proposal responds to this need, applying our research on socio-technical resilience to:
- Investigate the lived experience of the pandemic on older adults and their support networks.
- Support the resilience of these networks in meeting ongoing emotional needs through the development of an adaptive digital platform which enables the recording, sharing, and analysing of wellbeing within a secure and privacy-respecting environment.
We will also produce critical data and resources:
- Multimethod public datasets on the social implications of COVID-19 and social distancing, the lived experience of social isolation, and the relationships between social support structures, digital engagement, and wellbeing over time.
- Methods for software adaptivity in response to an individual's psychological requirements.
Our work will address these research questions:
1. What are the benefits and shortcomings to socially distanced older people and their support networks of digitally recording, sharing and analysing psychological states?
2. How can a digital platform support the social support dynamics (requesting, offering and accepting) that were previously face-to-face?
3. What are the real-time relationships between social behaviours, loneliness, and emotion regulation for socially distanced older people?
4. How can we predict trends and trigger system adaptivity to encourage interpersonal engagement and thereby reduce the negative impacts of isolation?
This project seeks to contribute to understanding of and response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts due to social isolation, by digitally facilitating support/carer interactions and gathering critical data to assist personalized interventions.
- Investigate the lived experience of the pandemic on older adults and their support networks.
- Support the resilience of these networks in meeting ongoing emotional needs through the development of an adaptive digital platform which enables the recording, sharing, and analysing of wellbeing within a secure and privacy-respecting environment.
We will also produce critical data and resources:
- Multimethod public datasets on the social implications of COVID-19 and social distancing, the lived experience of social isolation, and the relationships between social support structures, digital engagement, and wellbeing over time.
- Methods for software adaptivity in response to an individual's psychological requirements.
Our work will address these research questions:
1. What are the benefits and shortcomings to socially distanced older people and their support networks of digitally recording, sharing and analysing psychological states?
2. How can a digital platform support the social support dynamics (requesting, offering and accepting) that were previously face-to-face?
3. What are the real-time relationships between social behaviours, loneliness, and emotion regulation for socially distanced older people?
4. How can we predict trends and trigger system adaptivity to encourage interpersonal engagement and thereby reduce the negative impacts of isolation?
This project seeks to contribute to understanding of and response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts due to social isolation, by digitally facilitating support/carer interactions and gathering critical data to assist personalized interventions.
Publications
Mehta V
(2021)
Privacy Care A Tangible Interaction Framework for Privacy Management
in ACM Transactions on Internet Technology
Stuart A
(2022)
'Oh no, not a group!' The factors that lonely or isolated people report as barriers to joining groups for health and well-being.
in British journal of health psychology
Liddle J
(2021)
"Building the Threads of Connection that We Already Have": The Nature of Connections via Technology for Older People.
in Clinical gerontologist
Stuart A
(2022)
Loneliness in older people and COVID-19: Applying the social identity approach to digital intervention design.
in Computers in human behavior reports
Stuart A
(2023)
Digital Intervention in Loneliness in Older Adults: Qualitative Analysis of User Studies.
in JMIR formative research
Gooch D
(2021)
A Design Exploration of Health-Related Community Displays
in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Gooch D
(2021)
A Design Exploration of Health-Related Community Displays
in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction - CSCW
| Title | Circle app design study materials (SERVICE project) |
| Description | Screenshots and study materials from user studies (interviews and usability trial) conducted in the early design of the Circle app v1, for the SERVICE project SERVICE is a non-profit academic effort to understand and support the emotional needs of older adults impacted by COVID-19. 1-SERVICE_concept video... contains the video used in the first focus group study. 2-App screens all smaller...contains the app wireframes used in the second concept study. 3-Circle app version one - contains screenshots of the app used in the third study, the usability trial. The publication linked to these studies has not yet been released. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| URL | https://ordo.open.ac.uk/articles/media/Circle_app_design_study_materials_SERVICE_project_/20401377/1 |
| Title | Circle app design study materials (SERVICE project) |
| Description | Screenshots and study materials from user studies (interviews and usability trial) conducted in the early design of the Circle app v1, for the SERVICE project SERVICE is a non-profit academic effort to understand and support the emotional needs of older adults impacted by COVID-19. 1-SERVICE_concept video... contains the video used in the first focus group study. 2-App screens all smaller...contains the app wireframes used in the second concept study. 3-Circle app version one - contains screenshots of the app used in the third study, the usability trial. The publication linked to these studies has not yet been released. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| URL | https://ordo.open.ac.uk/articles/media/Circle_app_design_study_materials_SERVICE_project_/20401377 |
| Description | 1) Older adults often do not want to be perceived as a burden to friends and community. COVID-19 has accentuated this 'age-based stereotype threat' by impeding older adults' active engagement and participation in family and community life. Researchers and funders should bear this in mind when constructing grant schemes and applications. 2) The older adults in most distress due to the pandemic may be difficult to reach and engage with and may be reluctant to re-emerge even after restrictions ease. Recruiting such participants can be scaffolded through group-based approaches, but also requires time and financing to achieve successfully. Do not underestimate the costs of engagement. 3) Our analysis of The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) using machine learning techniques suggest that periodic data collection is insufficient to offer insights into shorter term episodes of loneliness and mental health impacts of COVID, creating further need for more fine-grained data which can be used to generate psychological models. 4) Early findings into the feasibility for a carer dashboard suggest that new software for professional carers/workers must respect existing work practices to avoid outright rejection, as potential users already feel overburdened by new software they have been expected to learn during the pandemic. 5) Early SERVICE App user studies suggested the ability to give emotional support to others is reported by older adults as more compelling than receiving support. Activity recommendations were seen by some as inappropriate. Rewarding app interactions through some form of points or gamification was generally rejected. |
| Exploitation Route | The outcomes could be used to design and build systems to reduce costs and better support older and vulnerable adults by enabling them to self-monitor and enable care workers and clinicians to intervene early to prevent poor mental health outcomes. |
| Sectors | Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| URL | https://serviceproject.org.uk |
| Description | Written evidence to UK government public accounts committee: Positive Ageing Together: A group-based approach to understanding and fostering resilience in older adults during and after COVID-19. (2021) Written Evidence to UK Parliament Public Accounts Committee: Thirteenth Report - Initial lessons from the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 25 July 2021 |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Title | Dataset from Field Trial on Wellbeing and Loneliness in Older Adults in the UK |
| Description | Wellbeing data and social network information entered by participants via a smartphone app, over 2 weeks. Surveys taken at beginning, mid and end of 2 weeks that assess psychometrics. Data connected via an anonymised user id. All data were collected under a study approved by the Nottingham Trent University psychology research ethics committee, with permission from participants to share anonymised data. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://ordo.open.ac.uk/articles/dataset/Dataset_from_Field_Trial_on_Wellbeing_and_Loneliness_in_Old... |
| Title | Dataset from Field Trial on Wellbeing and Loneliness in Older Adults in the UK |
| Description | Wellbeing data and social network information entered by participants via a smartphone app, over 2 weeks. Surveys taken at beginning, mid and end of 2 weeks that assess psychometrics. Data connected via an anonymised user id. All data were collected under a study approved by the Nottingham Trent University psychology research ethics committee, with permission from participants to share anonymised data. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://ordo.open.ac.uk/articles/dataset/Dataset_from_Field_Trial_on_Wellbeing_and_Loneliness_in_Old... |
| Description | Age UK Exeter |
| Organisation | Age UK |
| Department | Age UK Exeter |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | We are collaborating to understand how to improve in-home care for older adults. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Age UK Exeter have located pilot participants and got initial feedback from them. |
| Impact | No output yet. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Milton Keynes University Hospital |
| Organisation | Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Development of lifelogging devices for pain logging. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Medical expertise, helping supply study participants |
| Impact | Outputs are still pending as studies are still running |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Warwickshire County Council |
| Organisation | Warwickshire County Council |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | I met with the Partnerships Projects Co-ordinator (Community Cohesion/Armed Forces/Financial Inclusion) of the Communities & Partnerships Team at Warwickshore County Council to provide a briefing on the SERVICE project and explore potential collaboration. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The project coordinator agreed to provide contact with Social Prescribing Linkworkers and Community Coordinators from their projects to advise on the development of the app. |
| Impact | I met with the Partnerships Projects Co-ordinator (Community Cohesion/Armed Forces/Financial Inclusion) of the Communities & Partnerships Team at Warwickshire County Council to provide a briefing on the SERVICE project and explore potential collaboration. The project coordinator agreed to provide contact with Social Prescribing Link Workers and Community Coordinators from their projects to advise on the development of the app. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Title | Circle App (iOS and Android) and back end database |
| Description | A dual platform Android and iOS app which allows people to log their mood on a validated scale as well as their activities and social interactions within their circle. The data stored in a backend database for analysis by carers/clinicians. Future releases will allow automated detection of patterns leading to low mood so early intervention is possible. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | The software is currently under evaluation, impacts are pending. |