Jay Sokolovsky

Clinical use of network analysis for psychiatric and aged populations.

Despite a recent renewal of interest in natural community support networks and self-help groups, there currently exist no systematic therapeutic approaches for working with network systems. Over the past two decades advances in the field of social network analysis have laid the groundwork for its conversion to a clinical tool. This paper illustrates how network analysis can provide quantitative and qualitative data useful in therapeutic interventions and agency planning decisions.

Measuring social interaction of the urban elderly: A methodological synthesis.

In general, the gerontological literature has characterized the inner-city elderly, especially those aged residing in single room occupancy hotels, as “isolates” or “loners.” However, it is proposed that the notion of isolation is largely a myth and that many studies have been hampered by inadequate research instruments. This paper illustrates: 1) The severe limitations of the traditional measures of determining sociability; 2) How social network analysis can overcome many of the deficiencies of other methods; and 3) How a synthesis of the anthropological and sociological approaches to network analysis can optimize data collection and provide culturally meaningful information.

Social networks and the elderly: Clinical techniques.

The authors describe the application of social network analysis to an elderly population living in single occupancy hotel rooms in New York City. They report significant personal networks which may be mobilized to assist these elderly persons. However, a clinical experimental study of clinical social network intervention revealed substantial limitations.

A reassessment of the sociability of long term skid row residents: A social network approach.

Despite more than one hundred and fifty empirical studies completed on the subject of skid row, no issue remains so completely muddled than that of the sociability of skid row men. Utilizing network analysis techniques developed in previous work with inner-city populations, the authors interviewed 48 elderly residents of the Bowery. The data dispelled the notion that skid rowers are completely isolated, incapable of intimacy and complex social formation, and unable to enlist the support of their compeers in response to deteriorating health. Nonetheless, as contrasted with other urban populations, they had markedly constricted social worlds. A reinterpretation of the literature is proffered based on these findings.

Self-help hypertensive groups and the elderly in Yugoslavia.

This study examines aging in Yugoslavia in the context of rapid demographic and social changes over the last several decades. Since this time, urbanization and the population aging of the society have begun to place a stress on the ability of the family and the formal health care system to deal with the needs of the elderly. Responses to this stress have included new types of residences for the elderly and various types of self-help groups dealing with a variety of health care needs. This paper focuses on the development and functioning of self-help groups to deal with the problem of hypertension among the elderly in the Republic of Croatia. Preliminary results indicate that such groups have been relatively successful in regulating blood pressure and slightly reducing mortality. However, the success of groups requires a long term commitment from public health institutions and a recognition of how such groups must be adapted to different social environments.