ACOMPANYEM: A COMmunity Program Accessing Lonely, Disabled Neighbors (Young, Elder, and Midlife)
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Multileveled-community approach.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Social Isolation or Loneliness, Homebound Persons, Disabled Persons. Basic parameters: from 16 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Spain
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
Unsure about the terms? Read our patient guide →
Official title
Accompaniment of Isolated People by Volunteers From the Neighborhood: a Community Mixed Quasi-experimental/Qualitative Clinical Trial
Overview
Social prescription prioritizes interventions for people at risk of social isolation or unwanted loneliness based on community assets and offers them a series of activities that can contribute to their emotional well-being as a healthy alternative to medicalized healthcare. Disabled homebound people deal with more difficulty accessing the social health assets available in the community. Volunteers from the same neighborhood may accomplish the social function of accompaniment and listening accessing them at home or walking them out to attain social prescription goals. The Community Emotional Well-Being Referent (REBEC) may enhance all of this by conducting emotional counseling and management groups for volunteers. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a community intervention of accompaniment and emotional management with volunteers on the unwanted loneliness of people with social isolation, their emotional well-being, and their quality of life. METHODOLOGY: a community-based quasi-experimental non-randomized pre-post intervention study with control group, and a qualitative study. Candidate detection by the Driving Group, composed of neighborhood organizations and the community health team, was conducted opportunistically. Recruitment of isolated individuals and volunteers was carried out, with registration based on inclusion criteria. Implementation of the multi-level intervention for volunteers and isolated individuals took place at home or by participating in community resources on the street, with parallel support groups for volunteers using REBEC. Each round of participants was followed for three months, continuing until the sample was complete. Qualitative analysis was conducted upon reaching information saturation. In cases where architectural barriers were detected, technical aids (such as portable stairlifts) were proposed, and their impact was studied.
Interventions
- Behavioral Multileveled-community approach
One-to-one delivered interaction at relational level (Interpersonal Relations, Volunteers) Socio-health interaction at personalized level (Social Work) Group delivered interaction for volunteers (Group Dynamics) Community-level interactions (Social Cohesion, Community Networks)
Primary outcome measures
- Social Support/Isolation [Time frame: 3 months for each round]
- Emotional Well-Being [Time frame: 3 months for each round]
- Loneliness [Time frame: 3 months]
- Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) [Time frame: 3 months for each round]
- Social Support/Isolation for aged more than 65 [Time frame: 3 months for each round]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
Previously detected by community and professional assets among people over 16 years of age with the following criteria:
- Disabled physical or mental homebound persons.
- Unwanted loneliness, with difficulty in accessing other assets of the social prescription program.
- less than 8 on the Oslo Social Support Scale or less than 20 on the LSNS-R scale or less than 2 on the LSNR-6 scale in people over 65 years of age.
Exclusion criteria
- Impossibility of communication
- End-of-life situations.
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: No
Study design
- Allocation
- Non-randomized
- Model
- Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Supportive care
Study locations
Spain · 1 center
- Centre Atenció Primària Bonavista-La Canonja. Gerència Territorial Camp de Tarragona, Inst — Tarragona
Publications
- Camos-Guijosa P, Caro-Duran A, Belles-Mur E, Domingo-Arasa B, Vasco-Rodriguez Y. Accompaniment of isolated people by volunteers from the neighborhood (ACOMPANYEM). A community trial with a nested qualitative study. Gac Sanit. 2025;39:102442. doi: 10.1016/j.gaceta.2024.102442. Epub 2025 Jan 17. PMID 39818040
Identifiers
NCT: NCT06606431 · 24/095-P (Ethics Committee nº)