Remote groups to alleviate loneliness among the elderly – encouraging feedback from experiments

This spring, some of the remote home care clients from our wellbeing services county have participated in group meetings, run and planned by students.

Remote groups have previously been piloted in our wellbeing services county in remote home care and remote daytime activities, with around 40 clients participating in the groups.

“In 2023, remote home care organised group meetings for our clients and daytime activities staff also participated in running remote daytime activities,” says Specialist Anni Virtanen. 

“The positive feedback encouraged us to try organising such activities in cooperation with educational institutions.” 

The proposal was enthusiastically received by the educational institutions. The planning and running of remote group meetings fitted in well with the courses offered by Laurea and Metropolia Universities of Applied Sciences. A total of 12 students of gerontology or social work participated in running the groups.

Metropolia University of Applied Sciences’ gerontology students Niina Lindström from Helsinki and Marika Nelimarkka from Lohja joined in with curiosity. By doing so, they were able to complete their courses in strengthening participation and promoting the well-being and health of the elderly.   

“I have worked as a practical nurse in home care in Helsinki and have some experience with remote care devices. I was interested in how these kind of group meetings work,” says Niina. 

“Remote activities are the future, so it is good to be interested in them from the very beginning. I was actually slightly sceptical at first, but the project surprised me in a positive way,” Marika explains.

Our wellbeing services county’s remote home care workers searched for clients for the group meetings. They told their clients about the remote groups, and the clients were able to choose whether or not to participate. Each client already had access to a tablet device needed for participation. A total of 39 clients joined the remote groups this spring.

"At first, we had difficulties encouraging clients to participate. After all, this is a new thing and new things often make you nervous. However, you do not need to have any specific skills to participate in the remote groups nor do you need to prepare in any way for the group meetings,” says Anni Virtanen.

“The participants have liked the groups and almost everyone has said that they would like to continue if possible.” 

Niina and Marika ran remote group meetings for two groups from Espoo and one from Lohja, an hour a week for each group over a period of three weeks. Each group consisted of 3–5 participants; the number varied slightly depending on the situation of the clients. A total of 11 remote home care clients joined the activities. 

The two leaders took ideas for the programme of the meetings from a previous daytime activities period that was part of their studies.

“We try to make sure that all our activities are such that there is room for discussion and participation,” Niina and Marika explain.

“The first meeting was a kind of exploration as we did not know anything about the participants. One of the things we did was a facial exercise as we thought that everyone could participate in it. It was pretty funny. It was also a way to break the ice as everyone looked equally funny on camera at the same time,” Niina laughs.

Niina and Marika asked the participants for their wishes at the end of each meeting and adapted the programme for future meetings accordingly. 

Niina and Marika asked for and received feedback directly from the participants of the groups.

“Many of the participants said that it was nice to have some kind of programme and variety to their day. One gentleman said that when you have no one to talk to, sometimes you feel like you do not know how to talk any more. So now he had the chance to test that his voice still works,” Marika tells.

According to Anni Virtanen, family members have also had a positive attitude towards the remote groups when they have been told about them at the family members’ evenings. 

Niina and Marika recommend that other people should also run remote groups.

“From a student’s point of view, the experiment was very interesting. It was useful to get some practice in remote activities – you do not get many opportunities like this,” Niina and Marika say gratefully.

Niina thinks that remote groups are a good addition to other services. 

“They are certainly suitable for people who, for whatever reason, do not want to or cannot leave their home to participate in any groups.” 

Hannu Väisänen, 77, from Espoo, took part in the remote group experiment. He would be happy to participate again if the opportunity arises. 

“All that kind of programmes are a good thing. I might even encourage a friend to participate,” says Hannu.

Specialist Sirpa Råberg tells that, in the autumn, remote group cooperation will be initiated with Swedish-language educational institutions Axxell and Arcada. 

“We want to try out remote group activities with the entire wellbeing service county’s Swedish-language remote home care clients. We also plan to explore the possibility of having students from different disciplines as leaders of the remote groups.” 

The possibility of increasing the number of remote groups is also under consideration.

According to Anni Virtanen, remote groups for the elderly will be kept included in the services of the wellbeing services county in one way or another.

“We have had positive experiences with them. We will see what we can come up with in the autumn.”

The project “Reducing loneliness and promoting participation among the elderly” (Ikääntyneiden yksinäisyyden vähentäminen ja osallisuuden edistäminen) is part of the Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland.