Resources to help identify and evaluate social isolation, loneliness, and social connectedness.
Screening – to identify whether a person is loneliness or isolated at one point in time. If a person is identified as being lonely or isolated, follow-up must be provided to assist the individual. Resources for follow-up are provided on our Connection Resources page.
Intervention Evaluation – to identify whether an intervention (a program, class, or workshop) impacts a participant’s loneliness, social isolation, or social connectedness over time. This is usually done by asking a series of questions prior (pre) intervention and then again after the intervention (post) to demonstrate change over the course of the intervention.
These are examples of validated screening tools to identify loneliness. All screenings should include next steps when someone does identify as lonely or isolated. Resources can be found on our Connection Resources page.
The Wisconsin Coalition for Social Connection encourages the use of the UCLA 3-item tool for screening for isolation and loneliness. If you are interested in using that tool, we have provided additional resources below to assist.
There are many tools available to evaluate an intervention to determine whether the intervention helps to reduce isolation or loneliness, or improve social connectedness. Many factors may contribute to identifying the best tool for your organization such as length, validity, cost, or others.
We encourage you to utilize the Foundation for Social Connection’s Social Connection Measurement Tools Inventory to help identify a tool right for you. The inventory includes more than 50 measurement tools that you can filter to help identify a tool appropriate for your use.
In addition, Commit to Connect produced Six Considerations for Outcome Evaluation of Social Engagement Programs Serving Older Adults and People with Disabilities. This document is great to look at the available tools and determine which tool is appropriate for you.
Below, we provide additional documentation on some of the tools listed in Commit to Connect’s source.
Are you doing screening or evaluation? We’d love to hear what your finding through your process! Please share a reports or findings and you could be featured on our page!