Friendly Visiting * Older Adults / Functional Disabilities / Socially Isolated Adults
PH-1400.1900-230 * YB-8000 * YF-2200 * YJ-9150
Programs that use "friendly visitors" (usually volunteers but also paid hourly companions) to call on people who are hospitalized or in another institutional setting, who are homebound or socially isolated due to disability or old age, or otherwise lack companionship with the objective of brightening their day and helping them to maintain contact with the outside world by reading, talking, listening, writing letters or performing other similar tasks.
Individuals who are age 50, 55, 60, 62 or 65 or older depending on the minimum age for qualifying as an older adult which varies by program.
Physical, mental or developmental disabilities that pose substantial barriers to an individual's ability to maintain independent living and which place the individual at risk of institutionalization without varying degrees of community support or which may leave no other choice than institutionalization.
Adults who have a low level of contact and interaction with family, friends, neighbors, the broader community and other sources of social support. Social isolation may be due to a number of factors including loss of a spouse, living alone, death of family members or friends, retirement, disabilities, poor health, transportation issues, place of residence, low self-esteem or poverty.