Project: Geographic Loneliness and COVID-19 (Collaboration with Wellspan)
Student Researchers: Sarah Tresselt and Trevor Major
Introduction & Background
“With the current COVID-19 situation, loneliness has become a great influence on many people. Loneliness has specifically impacted ages spanning from 18-35 and 65+. Our focus is going to be on the 65+ group.
COVID-19 has caused various stores to close or change their hours, community centers & other social facilities to close, and visitor restrictions for hospital patients, nursing home residents, and the general public due to social distancing guidelines. This has created widespread geographic loneliness, especially in the 65+ population.”
Personal Background of the Researchers
“Sarah: As a nursing student and a nursing assistant, I have seen the effects that loneliness has on patients in isolation due to COVID. Nursing home patients were placed under contact precautions for the majority of the year. Because of these precautions, they were not allowed to have visitors, no matter how gravely ill. Postoperative patients were, and still are at some hospitals, also not allowed to have visitors. For some, this affected the nursing plan of care and how the patient recovered.
Trevor: With COVID-19 having taken its toll and personally having experienced first hand some of its effects, there are a few reasons for wanting to do this. As an Intelligence analysis major, while this may not relate back to anything in my field, I have seen how it can affect not only someone’s productivity but also how it has affected their mental health as well. When it comes to dealing with loneliness on a personal level, I have dealt with some of this and while I am not seeking to solve it, as each case is different for each individual, a good step in the right direction might be to look at how others have dealt with it in the past and seeing how spreading out or going to events or even being in a more social area could aid in someone feeling less lonely and overall healthier as well.”
Research Question
“How do the density of social communities, points of gathering, and social activities affect an individual’s mental health and, more importantly, affect how lonely they feel?”
Methodology & Data
“-Focus on York County, PA
-Gather geographic information for college campuses, elderly care facilities, parks, airports, poverty data, and medical facilities in York County
-Create geographic data for shopping centers, pharmacies, and grocery stores in York County using Google”
Conclusions
“In conclusion, our research shows that the groupings of the people that are more out in the suburban areas tend to be the more isolated of the groups. These groups, consisting of the age groups for the 65+ community are primarily. However, the groups for the rural area are the ones that most at risk as they are far more isolated. The groups that are more towards the inner city may be more at risk for COVID-19, however, their loneliness may not be nearly as extreme because of this. Those in the countryside have less access to some of these places naturally as most of the resources for the older community are grouped in suburbs and main cities.”
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