Competition Identifies Tech Solutions to Combat Social Isolation
A 2017 study by AARP, Stanford University and Harvard University found that a lack of social contacts among older adults is associated with an estimated $6.7 billion in additional federal healthcare spending annually. Seeking to address this issue, federal policymakers are conducting a technology innovation challenge to identify solutions to connect people.
Launched in June, the Mobilizing and Empowering the Nation and Technology to Address Loneliness & social isolation (MENTAL) Health Innovation Challenge will award a total of $750,000 in prizes for development of an easy-to-use online system that offers suggestions for programs, activities, technologies and resources that can help people connect to others and engage in the community, based on their individual needs, interests and abilities.
The federal Administration for Community Living (ACL) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health have just announced the winners of the first phase of the challenge.
Thirty-eight proposals were scored individually by multiple judges, and the eight with the highest scores were invited to present their solutions to a panel of judges and answer questions. All eight proposed solutions that are fully accessible and which can be used on both desktop and mobile devices, and most employed cloud-based technology.
From those eight, No Wrong Door Virginia’s Social Health Connector and United Way Worldwide’s You Connect were selected to advance to the second phase of the competition. Each was awarded $75,000 to support continued development and testing of their solution as they compete for a first-place prize of $450,000 and a second-place prize of $100,000. The winning system will be announced and demonstrated in January 2021 at CES, an annual trade show produced by the Consumer Technology Association.
The winning solutions and finalists are as follows, with project descriptions extracted from materials submitted for the competition:
Winner: Social Health Connector
Team Lead: Sara Link, No Wrong Door Virginia, Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services
Partners: Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Gerontology, VirginiaNavigator, Andrew Kim (developer)
The Social Health Connector proposed by the No Wrong Door Virginia team aims to engage people in a reflective, person-centered virtual conversation about the benefits of social connections and how resources and technology can help to maintain or improve health. The tool aggregates information from databases operated by the team partners and other vetted sources about devices, electronic applications and services that can help users connect and engage. Visitors can browse all available resources or complete a short, but comprehensive, assessment of their social health to receive personalized answers, options, and resources based on their individual responses and preferences. The individual then selects from those suggestions (and can add others they find through browsing the tool) to create their own social connection plan.
Winner: YouConnect
Team Lead: Matthew Aliberti, United Way Worldwide
Partners: UpPurpose
YouConnect is a digital matchmaking tool that leverages the 211 network’s comprehensive nationwide database of human and social services and resources as well as United Way’s presence in more than 1,100 U.S. communities to provide opportunities for people to engage and connect in healthy ways in their communities. Social engagement tools, as well as social services and other resources, will be accessible via the national 211 database. The user interface and matching process will build on technology being developed by United Way to engage millions of volunteers and donors. Based on information entered by the user, the tool will use artificial intelligence to identify and match appropriate services and engagement opportunities. The brief assessment also will screen for risks, like depression, and can route the individual to a more in-depth screening and additional support if necessary.
Finalist: CaringWire
Team Lead: Michael Sentz, CaringWire
Partners: City of Dublin (OH), Columbus Federation of Settlements, Jewish Family Services, Syntero, The Ohio State University East Federally Qualified Health Center, and United Church Homes
CaringWire matches individuals and caregivers with supportive social services to address isolation, social determinants of health, and activities of daily living. Based on information collected through the site’s evidence-based assessment tool, CaringWire provides users with a tailored care plan populated with unbiased information about options available in their area to meet their individual needs, including location, contact information, user reviews, services offered, and fee structures.
Finalist: MIMI-Rx Resource and Referral Solution
Team Lead: Stanley Campbell, EagleForce Health Inc.
Partners: Maryland Living Well Center of Excellence and Partners in Care Foundation
The Medications and Immunizations Management Initiative (MIMI-Rx) Resource and Referral Solution (RRS) is a consumer-facing, HIPAA-compliant, HITECH secure web and mobile platform for telehealth and remote patient monitoring. It connects consumers to providers of healthcare, social services and other resources through a single entry point and EagleForce Health can provide devices to support that connection and enable the individual to share their information with all providers. The team incorporated computer-assisted assessments and screening strategies, such as the Upstream Social Isolation Risk Screener (U-SIRS), to increase the platform’s ability to screen older adults for loneliness and social isolation risk in community and/or clinical settings.
Finalist: ENGAGE: ENGaging while AGing Everywhere
Team Lead: Avi Price, Uniper Care Inc., and Brad Karlin, Solutions for Mental Health Change, PLLC
Partners: Area Agencies on Aging of Cook County, IL; Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, FL; California State University, Long Beach; Los Angeles County Alliance for Community Health and Aging
Team ENGAGE’s solution builds upon existing technologies and resources developed by primary collaborator, Uniper Care. ENGAGE incorporates a graphics-rich design approach to improve usability, particularly for users with less digital or language literacy or who may be overwhelmed by more traditional approaches to information provision. For example, the interface will include the use of an avatar guide to assist users with navigating through the site. ENGAGE’s assessment tool was built using the De Jong Gierveld 6-Item Loneliness Scale, which not only screens for social isolation and loneliness, but also screens for underlying causes to better tailor suggestions and prioritize resource options that offer the greatest utility and likelihood of use.
Finalist: LeadingAge CAST CASES Tool
Team Lead: Majd Alwan, LeadingAge Center for Aging Services Technology
Partners: Connecticut's No Wrong Door system: Connecticut Statewide Aging & Disability Center
LeadingAge CAST CASES prototype expands the LeadingAge CAST’s Social Connectedness and Engagement Technologies portfolio, which was developed to help providers of services for older adults find, select and implement technology solutions that support social connectedness and social engagement. The CAST CASES prototype broadens the original tool, adding “no tech” and “low tech” options to the database of resources that users can find through the platform.
Finalist: Senior Link (California)
Team Lead: Arthur Kajiyama, Senior Link
Partners: Optimal Aging Center, Photozig, Inc., St. Thomas of Canterbury Church
The Senior Link web application facilitates volunteer outreach to seniors and connects older adults to resources they can use to engage and connect with others. Through Senior Link, coordinators create and manage groups of volunteers, who are then connected to individual older adults. The platform facilitates volunteer recruiting and training, as well as the process of matching volunteers to individual older adults, planning and scheduling calls between them, and tracking that interaction. Through Senior Link, volunteers can relay any needs for assistance they learn about in their calls, which creates a mechanism for connecting the older individual to resources to address them.
Finalist: Team televëda
Team Lead: Shruti Gurudanti, Televëda (AZ)
Partners: Ability360, Arizona Department of Health Services (Prevention Services), Arizona Disabled Sports, Arizona Spinal Cord Injury Association, Arizona State University (Evaluation), Civitan Foundation, Daring Adventures, Differently Abled Mothers Empowerment Society, Duet, Inc., Foundation for Senior Living, Mikey’s League, The Miracle League of Arizona, No Wrong Door Arizona, Paralyzed Veterans of America (AZ Chapter), We’re MOVING FORWARD!
televëda offers accessible classes to help older adults and children with disabilities stay active and engaged. The classes are offered in interactive, live-streamed formats through a proprietary accessible videoconferencing tool. For the MENTAL Health Challenge, Team televëda proposed to expand the scope of its existing online directory to include nationwide resources, broaden the program options with an online directory of in-person classes provided by local state agencies and other organizations, and offer resources to help organizations develop the capability to offer a hybrid of traditional and virtual programming to meet the needs of a larger audience.
