HOPE in Later Life

The HOPE (Helping Older People Engage) Lab engages in upstream suicide prevention by helping older adults build healthy social connections.

Kim Van Orden, PhD, runs the lab, which teams with Lifespan and other community agencies on studies and interventions for loneliness and suicide risk. One study is testing the benefits of volunteering for lonely older adults—making phone calls to isolated individuals or helping out at an animal shelter. Other studies have tested the value of peer companionship programs and behavioral psychotherapy.

Van Orden says older people prioritize emotional well-being, and it increases with age—“a strength we can capitalize on.” She says her mother, despite physical health and cognition problems, was her happiest after moving into a senior living community, where she made new friends and fell in love at age 72.

“To me,” says Van Orden, “suicide prevention in later life is about course correcting—getting older adults back onto the healthy aging trajectory and helping them address risk factors for suicide by growing their own protective factors.” it a point to discuss her findings in public statements, op-ed articles in the media, and interviews to get the research in front of more people.

This is the kind of exploration that is leading the CSPS into the future, Van Orden says. “We want to extend that work,” she says, in new directions “that capitalize on the expertise of our investigators and emerging, innovative methodologies.” RM