New Campaign Helps Older Adults Stay Connected and Healthy During the COVID-19 Pandemic

H4H Cover Twitter.png

The holiday season is a time where family and friends gather—this year, in person or virtually—to spend time together, reminisce and make new memories. It’s also a time when families have important but sometimes difficult conversations. That’s why the Eldercare Locator (funded by the Administration for Community Living and administered by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging) launches an annual campaign around the holidays focused on issues of importance to older Americans and their families. The Home for the Holidays campaign offers consumer-friendly tools to help start conversations among older adults and their family and friends.  

With many holiday gatherings and celebrations moving virtual this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Home for the Holidays campaign focuses on maintaining social connections to address social isolation and stay healthy.   

About the 2020 Campaign  

During this year of physical distancing, many older adults are feeling more socially isolated and lonely, and these feelings may be amplified during the holiday season. The Eldercare Locator’s 2020 Home for the Holidays campaign highlights the importance of social connection to reduce social isolation, the impacts social isolation and social connection can have on mental and physical health, and ways the Aging Network can help older adults connect to their communities during this time of limited in-person social interactions.  

The campaign is also shining a light on programs within the Aging Network that foster social connection during a time when social isolation and loneliness are on the rise and helping connect older adults and caregivers to these programs. 

Campaign Materials  

The centerpiece of this year’s campaign is an informational brochure available in both English and Spanish that can be customized (English, Spanish) with organizational contact information. Directed toward consumers, the brochure provides an overview of social isolation and the effects social isolation and loneliness have on mental and physical health, details how older adults and caregivers can recognize social isolation in themselves or others, highlights ways older adults can stay connected and engaged during the pandemic, and offers resources and supports.

This year’s campaign also includes a toolkit of materials intended to help organizations promote their social engagement programs and participation in the campaign, including:  

  • Sample social media posts organizations can use to direct older adults and caregivers to their programs;

  • Graphics that can be used in social media posts, presentations, newsletter articles and more;

  • A template newsletter article that organizations can use in communications; and

  • A sample press release to highlight programs that address social isolation and loneliness while promoting participation in this national campaign. 

To learn more about the 2020 Home for the Holidays campaign and access additional materials, visit n4a.org/h4h2020.

Rebecca Levine