Assessing the Impact of Chronic Disease Self-Management Education Programs on Social Connection

 

Commit to Connect’s 2026 Community of Practice includes eight organizations serving older adults and people with disabilities and offering chronic disease self-management education (CDSME) programs. The Community of Practice is assisting members with measuring the impact of their CDSME programs on social connection. 

Each COP member will have access to the collection instrument and protocols, technical assistance from the Commit to Connect Resource Center, expertise from an expert evaluator, and five peer-to-peer learning sessions.  

The objectives of the COP are to: 

1. Work with COP members to collaboratively implement a flexible, yet standardized evaluation process for their CDSME program 

2. Build capacity of members by providing training and technical assistance to COP members  

3. Use findings to build the social connection evidence-base for CDSME programs  

COPs support Commit to Connect’s long-term goal of increasing the availability of evidence-based programs and services addressing social isolation and loneliness. This effort builds upon the successful 2025 COP focused on evaluating CDSME’s impact on social connection outcomes using retrospective data collection. 

Participating Organizations:

• Aging and Disability Services (Seattle, Washington)
• Anne Arundel County Department of Aging and Disability Services (Annapolis, Maryland)
• Area Office on Aging of Northwestern Ohio (Toledo, Ohio)
• Centralina Area Agency on Aging (Charlotte, North Carolina)
• Detroit Area Agency on Aging (Detroit, Michigan)
• Peninsula Area Agency on Aging (Newport News, Virgina)
• REAL Services, Inc. (South Bend, Indiana)
• Rocky’s Area Agency on Aging (Helena, Montana) 
• Rush University System for Health (Chicago, Illinois) 
• Spirit Lake Senior Services (Fort Totten, North Dakota)

Information on Implementation:

• COP participating organizations will collect pre- and post-test data from participants enrolled in CDSME program workshops using the Upstream Social Interaction Risk Scale (U-SIRS-13) and Retrospective Assessment of Connection Impact (RACI).
• The U-SIRS-13 will be collected before and after the CDSME workshop. The RACI will be collected only after the CDSME workshop. The U-SIRS-13 and RACI each take about two to three minutes to complete. When combined with the IRB script, participating sites can expect the data collection encounter to take approximately 10 minutes. 
• Participating sites will collect the information through a Qualtrics link. 
• All data and data reports would be shared back with participating community-based organizations. Technical assistance will be provided to help sites use their data to identify benefits and make value propositions.

Benefits: 

While there is no funding associated with participation in this community of practice, the benefits include:  

• Access to the U-SIRS-13 and RACI to evaluate the impact of your CDSME program workshops on social connection 
• Receive technical assistance and support with implementing the U-SIRS-13 and RACI into workflow and programming 
• Receive technical assistance on how to understand and use the data to learn more about the impact of their program on social connectedness and engage in continuous quality improvement 
• Receive secure data reports
• Grow your professional network with others interested in CDSME and addressing social isolation and/or loneliness

  

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Previous Communities of Practice

• Assessing the Retrospective Impact of Chronic Disease Self-Management Education Programs on Social Connection: This group included six community care hubs (CCHs) serving older adults and people with disabilities and conducted retrospective analysis of their chronic disease self-management education (CDSME) programs. 
• Understanding the Impact of Social Isolation and Loneliness Programs Community of Practice: The 2023 – 2024 Community of Practice utilized the U-SIRS-13 as a “pre-test” and “post-test” with three network organizations.
• Intergenerational Engagement Community of Practice: The 2022-2023 Community of Practice focused on intergenerational programming and social connectedness.

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