NCT05611996

PEERS Plus mHealth Enhanced Peer Support

PEERS Plus - mHealth Enhanced Peer Support to Reduce Depression Among Low-income and Ethnic Minority Older Adults

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 34 (actual)
• Sponsor: Massachusetts General Hospital · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 50 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The goal of this intervention study is to design and learn whether peer support that is delivered through video chats and texts can decrease depression among older adults. Participants will be assigned to a peer support program where they will receive 8 video chats with a peer mentor who provide social support and supportive texts over 8 weeks.

Detailed description

PEERS plus is a psychosocial intervention being developed to reduce depression among older adults. In this intervention peer mentors who are also 50 years of age and older and who have experiential knowledge of depression provide depression care. Older adults with depression will be recruited and assigned to the peer support program. This will consist of 8 weekly peer mentor - older adult video chats that provide emotional support and sharing of self-care skills for depression. Supportive texts will be sent on a weekly basis to older adults by peer mentors. These texts will provide encouragement, affirmations and information about mental health resources. Peer mentors are trained and supervised by a mental health professional during the 8 week period. We will assess at baseline, post study and 3 months after the intervention.

Conditions

• Depression in Old Age

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Peers plus	Peer support intervention in which peer mentors who have experiential knowledge of depression deliver social support through video chats and texts to older adults with depression.

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-12-15
• Primary completion: 2025-01-17
• Completion: 2025-01-17
• First posted: 2022-11-10
• Last updated: 2025-10-08
• Results posted: 2025-10-08

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States