Hugging with a Shower Curtain: Older Adults' Social Support Realities during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic led to dire consequences globally, and it has been particularly challenging for older adults. They are at a higher risk of adverse outcomes of the disease citecdc_covid. Older adults also use less technology than other age groups citetech_old, so they mostly rely on in-person interactions and services for social support. However, disease mitigation efforts such as social distancing and self-quarantining severely limited in-person interactions, hindering older adults' social support during the COVID-19 crisis. In this paper, we present findings on social support realities from semi-structured interviews with older adults (N=15) living alone in community dwellings. We found that older adults' support roles, support sources, and support concerns evolve as they passed through this time of sweeping change. They are enthusiastic about providing support to people who are older and more vulnerable than themselves. At the same time, their needs for safety, autonomy, and independence create tensions around social support. We propose a framework to illustrate the evolving ecology of social support that can facilitate the holistic design of socio-technical support systems for older adults. We argue against the societal portrayal of older adults as vulnerable individuals. Rather, there is an opportunity to design support systems considering them as anchors in society. Towards that goal, we present design implications for future socio-technical support systems to empower older adults to age in place during a crisis. © 2021 ACM.