Bridging the Virtual Divide: Engaging Older Adults with Serious Mental Illness

Background: Individuals with serious mental illness are a vulnerable population at high risk for poor outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic and lack access to technology that has become central to human interaction, medical care, and research participation. Individuals with serious mental illness who are older, Latino, and residing in group living environments face additional barriers to technology use and are at heightened risk during the pandemic. Without innovative, evidence-based engagement strategies and digital tools, these individuals will be excluded from research. To address this gap, the project team aims to build capacity to conduct person-centered research using approaches that are tailored to older adults with serious mental illness, the Latino community, and those living in group environments. Proposed Solution: The team will join with a stakeholder coalition to identify barriers and facilitators to engagement during the pandemic, build a virtual community of practice to foster co-learning, identify and evaluate strategies for virtual engagement, and develop a shared research agenda that is responsive to stakeholder needs and the context of the pandemic, able to be disseminated rapidly, and adapted to diverse populations. Objectives: Elucidate barriers and facilitators to engagement and technology use among vulnerable adults with serious mental illness (older adults, Latino community, group living environments), their caregivers, and clinicians in the context of COVID-19 Build capacity to conduct PCOR focused on older adults with serious mental illness that can be adapted to other high-risk populations Capture emerging research questions, create a shared agenda for PCOR across stakeholder groups, and develop and disseminate a virtual engagement toolkit. Outcomes: Participation in virtual listening sessions and key informant interviews, build membership of the community of practice (disciplines, regions, stakeholder representation), summary of the community of practice sessions, virtual engagement strategies toolkit, shared research agenda, dissemination town hall, long-term research and engagement plan.