Understanding How Loneliness Influences Health and What Nurses Can Do to Help Lonely People

THIS EVENT IS POSTPONED. DR. THEEKE HAS SERIOUS HEALTH ISSUES AND NEEDS TO RESCHEDULE.

Understanding How Loneliness Influences Health and What Nurses Can Do to Help Lonely People

Laurie Theeke, PhD, FNP-BC, GCNS-BC, FNAP, FAAN -
Professor and Associate Dean for PhD Education at The George Washington University School of Nursing

Program description: This presentation will include information about loneliness as a unique health stressor. We will delve into the relationship between belonging and loneliness, with information on how unmet need to belong and experience of loneliness can lead to poor psychological, behavioral, physical and social health outcomes. A Description of LISTEN as an intervention for loneliness along with other potential interventions will be provided and discussed.

Objectives:

1. Enhance knowledge on loneliness and how it elicits biopsychosocial stress responses that lead to poor health.
2. Describe the concept of belonging and how it relates to the experience of loneliness.
3. Discuss risks for loneliness for special populations including children, women in the perinatal period, older adults, and those in the LGBTQ+ community.
4. Learn about how interventions for loneliness could potentially be implemented in faith communities.

DATE: March 14, 2024
TIME: 3-5 pm AKT, 4-6 pm PT, 5-7 pm MT, 6-8 pm CT, 7-9 pm ET

Registration fee: $30 for LFCNA members/ $50 for non-members
Nursing Contact hours provided: 2.0 (see below)

Speaker Information: 
Laurie Theeke, PhD, FNP-BC, GCNS-BC, FNAP, FAAN is Professor and Associate Dean for PhD Education at The George Washington University School of Nursing. Her program of scholarship is centered on the problem of loneliness and its contribution to negative health outcomes in persons with complex chronic illness living in rural underserved areas. Dr. Theeke is a native of the Appalachian region and as such, has developed expertise on the topic of depression and loneliness in this region, particularly focusing on understanding and how these psychosocial stressors elicit a physiological stress response and impact chronic illness outcomes. Her preliminary work included large national data set analyses of Health and Retirement data on predictors of and outcomes associated with loneliness. Dr. Theeke has received funding for projects using multiple methods to enhance what we know about the unique phenomenon of loneliness and the impact it may have on the human health experience. Dr. Theeke is the inventor of LISTEN, an intervention designed to target loneliness.

LISTEN is based on key components of story theory and principles of cognitive restructuring. More recently, Dr. Theeke is working with multiple universities to understand how loneliness may impact the physiology of wound healing and discover how loneliness relates to substance use disorder during the opioid crisis. Dr. Theeke has over

20 years of experience as a family nurse practitioner and clinical specialist serving rural underserved populations.

This nursing continuing professional development activity was approved by Montana Nurses Association, an accredited approver with distinction by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. To receive contact hours for this event, attendees must attend the entire event and submit a completed evaluation form.

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