Poster can be found in location 74.

The function of an activity-guide is an innovative municipal collaborative support effort that fits well into the strategies for healthy ageing and person-centred care. The activity-guide mission is to be a support, a personal contact, for elderly who experience involuntary loneliness in daring to recommence or find new social contexts, such as physical, cultural or creative activities. Today we know that experienced involuntary loneliness over longer period of time not only affects the psychological well-being but also the physical health. Put into perspective, involuntary loneliness is refereed to be as strongly associated with premature death as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. Simultaneously, we know that involuntary loneliness can be difficult to break by yourself, as perceived loneliness is often surrounded by feelings of shame. Fortunately, today there are good initiatives of collaborative support efforts to break the involuntary loneliness of elderly. One of these good initiatives is this collaborative project between Skövde Municipality and the University of Skövde where the aim is to contribute in development of the activity-guide function and collect data to evaluate the users’ perception and usefulness of the activity-guide function. The project is collecting both qualitative and quantitate data from elderly who have contact with the activity-guide. Preliminary data collected from individual-in-depth interviews with the elderly, shows that the activity-guide have a significant role in resuming or finding new social contexts. Concurrently, the preliminary results show that the elderly want more understanding and knowledge from healthcare providers about how involuntary loneliness affects their health and well-being. In the project, it is planned for focus-group interviews with the persons who are activity-guides in the municipalities that offer their residents this function. This projects knowledge can be used for a deeper understanding of what enables and prevents elderly person from daring to recommence or find new social contexts.