A newly published study explores how structured storytelling can prepare future health professionals while creating meaningful space for older adults to teach, mentor, and be heard.
By Jeremy C. Holloway, PhD, MBA
A life story changes when someone receives it with intentionally and socially aware care. Memory becomes a gift. A conversation becomes a bridge. A student begins to understand that care starts long before a diagnosis—with attention, respect, and a willingness to know the person in front of us.
This is what sits at the heart of Tellegacy and our newly published research article, “Social Care Curriculum: Lessons Learned From a Community-Based Program to Address Intergenerational Needs of Older Adults”, in Health & Social Care in the Community (Holloway et al., 2026).
For me, the significance of this publication begins with the people whose time, trust, and stories made the research possible.
Creating a place where generations can learn from one another
The study examined Tellegacy as a structured, community-based social care curriculum connecting undergraduate nursing students with older adults in the Columbus, Ohio, area.
Ninety-eight nursing students—known within Tellegacy as Legacy Builders—were each paired with an older adult. Before beginning their conversations, students completed training in active listening, empathy, mindfulness, goal setting, growth mindset, reminiscence, mentorship, and legacy interviewing.
Each pair then participated in approximately eight guided sessions within a 10-week implementation period. Older adults reflected on the people, experiences, values, goals, and lessons that had shaped their lives. Students practiced being fully present, asking thoughtful questions, and listening for what mattered to the person speaking. The experience culminated in a personalized legacy book created from the older adult’s stories.
The structure was intentional. Contact becomes connection through preparation, continuity, reciprocity, and trust.
Social connection belongs within the conversation about health
Social isolation and loneliness are related, yet distinct. Social isolation describes an objective lack of relationships or regular interaction, while loneliness reflects the personal experience of feeling disconnected. Both deserve thoughtful attention within health and community systems.
The U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on social connection identifies the structure, function, and quality of our relationships as important contributors to individual and community health (Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, 2023). The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has also called attention to social isolation and loneliness among older adults as consequential concerns for health and care systems (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2020).
Intergenerational programs offer one promising pathway. They can create consistent opportunities for people from different generations to form relationships, exchange knowledge, and participate in shared learning. Reviews of the evidence have also identified a need for stronger study designs, clearer descriptions of program curricula, and greater attention to the experiences of older adults themselves (Holloway et al., 2024; Whear et al., 2023).
This is where the new Tellegacy study contributes: it describes a structured curriculum, examines psychosocial measures, and brings participant experience into the interpretation of the program.
What participants experienced
The study’s quantitative measures showed modest changes in loneliness and life satisfaction. The clearest signals emerged through the experiences participants shared.
Participants described meaningful relationships, reciprocal learning, emotional support, stronger communication, and connections that continued after the program ended. (Holloway et al., 2026)
Some older adults became more comfortable using technology to stay connected, including texting, sharing photographs, using social media, and communicating through Zoom. Some relationships continued through weekly conversations or plans to meet for coffee or lunch. One older adult came to regard her Legacy Builder as another granddaughter.
These experiences illuminate how connection can grow. An older adult shares a memory and sees that it matters. A student discovers that listening is an active clinical and human skill. Two people who may never have met begin to recognize one another as sources of insight, encouragement, and possibility.
Older adults entered these relationships as teachers, mentors, storytellers, and partners in educating the future healthcare workforce. Students brought attention, curiosity, and a willingness to learn. The value traveled in both directions.
Four design principles that deserve attention
The study offers four practical lessons for universities, healthcare educators, and community organizations considering intergenerational programming.
- Preparation turns good intentions into usable skills
Meaningful conversations require more than a list of questions. Training in listening, empathy, mindfulness, reminiscence, and goal setting gives students a foundation for engaging with care and responding to the person in front of them.
- Continuity creates room for trust
One conversation can be valuable. A series of conversations allows a relationship to develop. Participants have time to become comfortable, revisit important themes, and move from introductions toward greater depth.
- Reciprocity protects dignity
Older adults bring knowledge, history, humor, resilience, cultural understanding, and lived experience. Positioning them as contributors changes the educational relationship. Students receive mentorship while older adults see their wisdom recognized and carried forward.
- Reflection turns experience into learning
Structured reflection helps students examine how they listened, what assumptions they encountered, and how their communication developed. It connects the relational experience to their growth as future professionals.
From a meaningful program to a reproducible social care curriculum
One of the most important gaps in intergenerational research has been limited detail about what participants were taught, how sessions were structured, and which elements could be replicated in other settings. Our earlier scoping review of U.S. intergenerational interventions identified this need directly (Holloway et al., 2024).
The new publication helps advance intergenerational engagement from a well-intentioned activity toward a defined social care curriculum that can be taught, studied, refined, and adapted.
That shift has practical value:
- Universities can integrate relationship-centered learning into nursing and other health-professions courses.
- Aging-service and community organizations can become active educational partners.
- Students can practice communication in sustained relationships with older adults.
- Researchers can examine which program elements support connection, learning, and long-term engagement.
- Older adults can help shape how future professionals understand aging, dignity, purpose, and care.
This is a strategic opportunity for health-professions education. Social care skills—including listening for what matters, building trust, recognizing strengths, and supporting meaningful goals—can be defined, practiced, observed, and strengthened.
The next stage of the research
This publication is an important step in a longer research journey. The next stage calls for larger, multisite studies; participants representing varied cultural, geographic, and socioeconomic communities; comparison conditions; longer-term follow-up; and stronger measures of student communication and relationship-centered practice.
These studies can help answer the questions that matter for responsible growth: Which elements create the greatest value? For whom? Under what conditions? How can programs preserve the human qualities that make connection meaningful while developing the consistency needed for education and research?
Scientific rigor and human-centered practice belong together. Measurement helps us understand whether an intervention achieves its intended outcomes. Participant voices help us understand how it is experienced, why it matters, and how it can improve.
Gratitude for every story entrusted to us
I am grateful to my coauthors—Yasmine Mustafa, Reyna Acosta, Owais Sayeed, Christine Ringhiser, and Lynn Shaffer—for the care and persistence they brought to this work.
I am equally grateful to the older adults who entrusted us with their stories; the nursing students who entered these conversations with openness and curiosity; and the educators, social-care professionals, and community partners who helped make the program possible.
Research can count sessions, analyze measures, and identify themes. Its deepest responsibility is to remain accountable to the people whose lives give those findings meaning.
Social connection is built in moments: one person asks a thoughtful question, another person trusts them with an answer, and both leave the conversation carrying something they did not have before. This publication gives those moments a place in the scientific record—and invites us to keep learning how to create them with care.
Read the full open-access article.
References
Holloway, J., James, D. L., Robillard, A., Hermer, J., Hawley, N., & Sayeed, O. (2024). Needs of social isolation, loneliness, and intergenerational interventions in the United States: A scoping review. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, 1386651.
Holloway, J., Mustafa, Y., Acosta, R., Sayeed, O., Ringhiser, C., & Shaffer, L. (2026). Social care curriculum: Lessons learned from a community-based program to address intergenerational needs of older adults. Health & Social Care in the Community, 2026, Article 6758518.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2020). Social isolation and loneliness in older adults: Opportunities for the health care system. The National Academies Press.
Office of the U.S. Surgeon General. (2023). Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on the healing effects of social connection and community. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Whear, R., Campbell, F., Rogers, M., Sutton, A., Robinson-Carter, E., Sharpe, R., Cohen, S., Fergy, R., Garside, R., Kneale, D., Melendez-Torres, G. J., & Thompson-Coon, J. (2023). What is the effect of intergenerational activities on the wellbeing and mental health of older people? A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 19, e1355.
