Abstract
Loneliness is a societal challenge that affects older adults’ wellbeing and quality of life. Furthermore, the social and physiological effects of aging can further disturb the ability to maintain, support, and make social relationships. With an increasing older adult population, many communities across the world are often unprepared to meet the diverse social needs of older adults. Leveraging existing tools and developing new resources to meet the social needs of individuals aging in Mexico and Latino Communities in the United States, is essential in supporting resiliency across the aging process. Communication technology, more specifically videoconferencing, creates new opportunities to facilitate social engagement. However, market ready videoconferencing platforms are often not designed to meet the needs and preferences of an older adult user. Furthermore, videoconferencing technologies are merely tools and not solutions to the experience of loneliness. Understanding how to leverage videoconferencing to deliver social engagement interventions is an essential step towards bridging the resource gap. Our interdisciplinary team has developed a web-based videoconferencing platform called OneClick.chat to support and meet the needs of older adults, both with and without mild cognitive impairment. The OneClick.chat platform is optimized to minimize usability challenges (e.g., system requirements) and enhance ease of use (e.g., user interface). We are currently testing an intervention that leverages OneClick.chat to facilitate opportunities for social engagement through fun and engaging online social events. The intervention uses OneClick.chat to organize (e.g., event registration and reminders) and implement (e.g., event hosting) the online social events. Through our research we aim to understand the potential of OneClick.chat to serve as a tool to deliver social engagement interventions and to support and meet the diverse needs of older adults. We will provide an overview of the platform and its potential for broader use with the goal of exploring opportunities for collaboration.
