Support for Isolated Seniors

Student Senior Isolation Prevention Partnership – A group of students at McMaster and the University of Waterloo have started the Mac-Waterloo-Niagara Student Senior Isolation Prevention Partnership (SSIPP) to assist socially isolated seniors during the COVID outbreak. Our program pairs student volunteers with socially isolated older adults to check-in via weekly phone calls in order to provide social comfort and standard patient education about COVID-19. Older adults living in the Hamilton, Waterloo, or Niagara regions can be referred through a member of their healthcare team or community organizations to the program. At the moment, we have over 100 healthcare professional students signed up to help us (many of whom speak different languages).  Many older adults are looking to have someone to speak to and are interested in this type of program, however we need help identifying them.  If you would like more information about the referral process contact MacSeniorIsolationPrevention@gmail.com for more information on the simple referral process. We will call all referred patients to determine interest and explain the program, assign them to volunteers, and provide you with updates on our program!  For more information on the impacts of social isolation and our program, check out our website: https://www.ssipp.info/ Please note this program is not affiliated with McMaster University or University of Waterloo.