Coronavirus: Phone may be all that is needed to relieve pandemic loneliness: Research

Toronto-Call your friends and family. It may only relieve the pandemic loneliness, depression and anxiety that is prevalent.

Studies published in peer-reviewed journals JAMA Psychiatry The phone suggests that you can help people who feel lonely during a pandemic and remain isolated. No training required.

This is not so surprising, says Roger McIntyre, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the University of Toronto. Because humans need to connect with others.

“It speaks to the fact that, as human beings, as human beings, we need to be in contact. That is an undeniable fact. It is in our DNA, years of evolution. It’s a social organism and needs to be contacted, “McIntyre told CTV News.ca in a telephone interview Wednesday.

This study focused on socially isolated adults using meals-on-wheels in Texas with the aim of quickly addressing the problem of loneliness during a pandemic. The researchers put together a team of young volunteers to call a Meals on Wheel client.

Sixteen volunteers between the ages of 17 and 23 received an hour of empathy-focused training through video conferencing. Additional resources were provided to make up an additional hour of training, such as videos and handouts. No degree or special qualification was required for this role. The caller was instructed to focus on listening to and guiding the topic that the client enjoyed. Volunteers were told to aim to keep the call within 10 minutes, but no time constraints were applied.

The recipients of the survey’s phone calls were primarily single adults living alone who were unable to leave the house during the pandemic.

During the four-week study, researchers found that people in the intervention group were less lonely and the participants varied throughout to determine the level of loneliness, anxiety, and depression that they completed. A study that found improved levels of anxiety and depression based on scale. Survey participants ranged in age from 27 to 101, with 63% aged 65 and over. More than half of the participants lived alone, and nearly 80% were women. All people who participated in the study reported at least one chronic illness.

According to McIntyre, the simple act of making a call for a short 10-minute conversation may seem superficial on the surface, but in reality it’s a call from a stranger. Even so, it addresses the basic need for socializing.

“These types of contacts by phone from strangers or anonymous contacts serve a very important purpose in the sense of connection,” he said.

While these contacts served an important purpose, you can get a greater sense of fulfillment by creating stronger connections and personal contacts, McIntyre added.

Caller volunteers were instructed to call participants during the first five days of the week, after which participants were able to determine how many calls they wanted to receive. Almost 60% chose to keep calling five times a week for the remaining three weeks of the survey.

By using callers who are not professionally trained in psychology or counseling, researchers have found their approach to be easy to deploy and extend.

McIntyre says that this easy way to deal with the loneliness associated with the blockade and restriction of COVID-19 can help our health, and loneliness can cause many physical problems. ..

“The lonely body was associated with serious medical problems such as heart disease, obesity and depression, which led to a reduction in lifespan,” he said.

There are few solutions to the problem of loneliness and often rely on trained individuals to provide different forms of treatment by telephone, video conferencing, or in person. This new study offers the hope that loneliness and its negative side effects can be dealt with more easily than previously thought.

This study has had positive results, but researchers say more research is needed to see how long the benefits of these types of phones will last.

So far, loneliness can be seriously damaging, so picking up the phone and reaching out to someone who feels lonely didn’t hurt.

“Loneliness is deadly,” McIntyre said.