SPOTLIGHT: THE HEART OF SENIOR LIVING
When You Need Someone New
To Talk To, Digital Platform Helps By Tom Gresham
A
ngela lives in San Francisco. She is 100 years old and “an absolutely fierce and dynamic lady,” with
dozens of friends she has been unable to see during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Madeline Dangerfield-Cha, co-founder of Mon Ami (
monami.io), a digital platform that links college students with seniors to form social connections. Dangerfield-Cha has been speaking with Angela over the phone, providing her with a regular social outlet. They’ve talked about Angela’s century of life and wealth of experiences. Angela told Dangerfield-Cha she hasn’t experienced anything like the pandemic before—something that so com- prehensively alters the fabric of daily life. During their conversations, Angela and Dangerfield-Cha find much to discuss and bond over. “It's really enriching for both of us,” Dan- gerfield-Cha says. The experience is illustrative of Mon
Ami’s mission to provide seniors with steady social engagement to help reduce the feelings of loneliness and isolation that are common with older adults. Nearly one-fourth of adults aged 65 and older are considered socially isolated, and social isola- tion significantly increases a person’s risk of premature death, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Making the connections The dangers have only expanded during the pandemic, which Dangerfield-Cha calls “a generation-defining crisis that has turned everything on its head.” In turn, the compa- ny has shifted from in-person visits to phone or video calls and has seen a mini-boom in interest and involvement.
Pre-pandemic, Mon Ami connected college students and seniors for in-person visits. Now, it’s all about phone calls—and the service is booming. Credit: Courtesy Mon Ami
In addition to individuals and groups,
Mon Ami currently works with a host of senior living communities (names confi- dential), matching college students with residents who are feeling lonely and don’t have family members who check on them regularly or who just could use a few extra “touch points.” Students typically commit to two calls a
week for three months. In working with senior living commu-
nities and others providing services on the ground, Mon Ami can serve to help scale their support for seniors, Dangerfield-Cha says. The platform can arrange for calls to be made at certain times of day and collab- orate with staff to make sure everything is in place for a successful call. Students are screened through “a rig-
orous application and training process” that includes criminal background checks, ensuring “a safe and secure way” to make connections, Dangerfield-Cha says.
48 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE SEPTEMBER/OCTORER 2020
Addressing social isolation Before March, students had provided more than 10,000 hours of in-person visits with seniors through the Mon Ami platform, which launched in 2018 – playing games, going for walks, working on art projects, and engaging in conversation. Students typical- ly met with seniors either at senior living communities or at the seniors’ individual residences.
Once the pandemic struck, the in-per- son component of Mon Ami halted. But “addressing loneliness and social isolation became more important than ever,” Dan- gerfield-Cha says. Consequently, Mon Ami began to use
its technology to coordinate with students to make phone calls to seniors, sometimes in collaboration with partners, such as senior living communities and nonprofit organizations. For instance, early in the pandemic, London Breed, the mayor of San Fran-
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