Older adult residents of public housing use the Positive Deviance approach to address social isolation

“Social isolation is a major health problem for older adults living in the community, leading to numerous detrimental health conditions. Social isolation is defined as "a state in which the individual lacks a sense of belonging socially, lacks engagement with others, has a minimal number of social contacts and they are deficient in fulfilling and quality relationships" (Nicholson, 2009, p. 1346). Current estimates of the prevalence of social isolation in community-dwelling older adults indicate that it is as high as 43 %, ranging from 10 to 43% (Nicholson, Molony, Fennie, Shellman, & McCorkle, 2010; Smith & Hirdes, 2009). Social isolation has been demonstrated to lead to numerous detrimental health effects in older adults including increased risk for all-cause mortality (Eng, Rimm, Fitzmaurice, & Kawachi, 2002), dementia (Fratiglioni, Paillard-Borg, & Winblad, 2004), increased risk for re-hospitalization (Mistry et al., 2001)... If social isolation is detected early, future morbidity and mortality could be avoided through prevention and mitigation efforts.” (J Prim Prev. 2012;33(2-3):137-152.)

The Senior Positive Adaptation Project (SPA) was a demonstration project designed to work with older adult residents of public housing in East Harlem, applying the Positive Deviance approach to determine how some residents are able to maintain social connectedness in the face of significant levels of social isolation. The project began in January 2013 with funding from The New York Community Trust. Partners included the Positive Deviance Initiative, Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, NYC Housing Authority, NYC Department for the Aging, and Union Settlement Association.