Engagement in retirement: an evaluation of the effect of Active Mentoring on engagement of older adults with intellectual disability in mainstream community groups.
One hour of training community retirees lets older adults with ID jump from 18 % to 74 % participation in mainstream senior clubs.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three women with intellectual disability, wanted to join mainstream retiree clubs.
The researchers paired each woman with two retired volunteers.
The volunteers got a one-hour crash course called Active Mentoring.
It blends Active Support (break tasks into small steps) and Co-worker Training (show peers how to prompt).
A multiple-baseline design tracked how much the women joined card games, choir, and yoga over the study period.
What they found
Activity engagement jumped from 18 % to 74 % once mentoring started.
The women stayed in the games longer and needed fewer staff prompts.
Social talk with peers did not change; they still chatted about the same amount.
Gains held at a 4-week follow-up after mentors stepped back.
How this fits with other research
Lancioni et al. (2011) surveyed Dutch adults with ID and found almost zero contact with non-disabled peers.
Matson et al. (2013) show one cheap fix: brief mentor training turns that zero into real participation.
Lin et al. (2011) warned that services are unprepared for ageing clients.
This study gives providers a ready-to-run program instead of just describing the gap.
Eggleston et al. (2018) link multiple health conditions to higher death risk; keeping clients active may buffer those risks.
Why it matters
You can copy this package tomorrow.
Pick two willing retirees, give them the one-hour slide deck, and start with one activity.
No extra staff, no new budget—just structured peer support.
Track engagement with a 15-second momentary time sample; if it tops 60 % for three sessions, fade your presence.
Your older clients get real community life instead of segregated day programs, and you meet the new CMS community-integration rules without extra cost.
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Join Free →Ask the nearest senior center for two volunteers, email them the Active Mentoring handout, and schedule a joint bingo hour this week.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: As adults with intellectual disability age, retirement options need to be explored. One option is to attend a mainstream community group for retirees. Support within these groups could come from group members who are trained to act as mentors for the older adults with intellectual disability. This research evaluated a support training programme, Active Mentoring, which combines elements of Active Support and Co-worker Training. METHOD: Three older women with intellectual disability participated in a non-concurrent multiple baseline design. Effect size analyses (Percentage of Non-overlapping Data) were used to evaluate observational data. RESULTS: Active Mentoring was effective in increasing most types of engagement in activities, but there was no observed effect for social engagement. Mentor help also increased. CONCLUSION: Active Mentoring was effective in eliciting support from mentors, and in increasing activity engagement of older adults with intellectual disability in mainstream community groups.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2013 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2012.01625.x