Where are Indiana seniors more likely to experience social isolation located?

For the Central Indiana Senior Fund (CISF) of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, Polis’ community health informatics team completed a comprehensive assessment of the needs of older adults in Central Indiana, including healthcare, health outcomes, caregiving, social well-being, aging in place, food security, safety, housing, transportation, and financial security.

We published findings in the first version of the State of Aging in Central Indiana Report (SoAR), completed in February 2020. The report provides funders, policymakers, and decision-makers access to actionable community intelligence about the social, economic, and equity issues associated with aging. A public version of the report will be completed in spring 2021. We also began designing an interactive, online version of the report, which will allow users to access more detailed data about the issues that interest them.

With the development of the SAVI Coronavirus Data Hub in early 2020, we created a Social Isolation Risk Index to help community partners identify where older adult communities are potentially vulnerable to social isolation, and implemented it on the SAVI COVID-19 Hub as an interactive user experience.

CICF disseminated this tool to senior serving organizations throughout Central Indiana to inform their COVID-19 response planning. We also conducted and published an analysis of the socioeconomic factors that influence COVID-19 risk such as poverty, living alone, marital status (never married and divorced, separated, and widowed), disability, and independent living difficulty.

To learn more, contact Karen Comer.