January 27, 2003

BOISE STATE STUDENT RESEARCH LOOKS AT SENIOR SERVICES

Boise State University psychology professor Tedd McDonald believes learning is doing, so he expects his community psychology students to be involved in the agencies and programs that affect people’s lives. As such, he jumped at the chance to get students involved in a project evaluating the Central District Health Department’s senior nutrition program.

“Students feel more ownership over a class if they’re making a personal contribution to it,” he said.
Community psychology looks at the relationship between community-based programs or agencies and people’s mental, emotional and physical health. Rather than use case studies or simulated data, McDonald believes it’s more effective to get students out into the community. His students agree.

Undergraduate Deanna Murray was one of five students who crafted a survey to gauge seniors’ feelings about the quality and quantity of food they were served as well as their interaction with staff members and their overall quality of life.

“[A lot] can be learned by preparing and collecting original data, but it was also important to see and talk with the very people who were behind the data,” said Murray. “Meeting the participants makes the data more meaningful because these people could actually be affected by it.”

Fellow student Teresa Plummer agreed: “It’s gratifying to be of service to community organizations and help find solutions to important issues facing senior citizens in our area,” she said. “The opportunity to do research is one of the reasons I’m glad that I attend Boise State.”

Senior Nutrition Program director Angela Spain said that even though the CDHD operates 10 meal site locations in the valley, the program had not been evaluated since its inception in 1974. “CDHD is dedicated to trying to offer the best possible programs and services to seniors, and conducting this survey in partnership with Boise State has helped us identify areas in which we can improve the quality of our meal program,” she said.

Because students asked additional questions beyond those dealing with meal services, they were also able to uncover concerns over such issues as loneliness, seniors’ sense of purpose and the correlation between mental and physical health — issues that so far haven’t been studied in-depth in this area.

“I was stunned by what the students asked,” McDonald said. “Their findings show there are probably some policy implications here. This could have continued benefits 10 years down the road when they’ve forgotten about me and the class.”

The survey showed that more than 70 percent of respondents felt that interaction with staff at the meal sites improved their quality of life, while almost 65 percent said they appreciated the additional social activities provided by the center.

Other students involved in the project were Laura Mathisen, Vicki Baker and Jeremiah Edwards. McDonald is planning to take the results, and his students, to the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association conference in April.

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Tedd McDonald
Psychology
426-2425

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426-3275

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