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(CNN) - Looking for a mental and physical boost during the pandemic? Try to volunteer.
Adults over 50 who volunteer for about two hours per week have a substantially lower risk of dying, higher levels of physical activity, and a better sense of well-being, according to a new study. And they develop fewer physical limitations than adults who don't volunteer.
The study, published Thursday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, analyzed personal interview data and survey responses from nearly 13,000 randomly selected participants in the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal panel study of older Americans. Two groups of participants were tracked for four years between 2010 and 2016.
While the research failed to find health benefits of specific diseases, the results echoed the results of other research on the general health benefits of helping others.
"Volunteering could help enrich our own lives by strengthening our ties to others, helping us to have a sense of purpose and optimism, and protecting us from feelings of loneliness, depressive symptoms and hopelessness," said study author Eric Kim, research scientist. in the department of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
That's certainly something we could all use right now, after months of confinement by a terrifying virus that takes and devastates lives while endangering others.
Reinventing volunteering
“When we think about volunteering, our minds can automatically turn to a specific set of activities. However, activities that physically bring us closer to others represent a risk during this time of pandemic, "said Kim. "Now is a wonderful opportunity to reimagine what volunteering might be like, perhaps in a way that allows us to remain physically distant from others."
One of the easiest ways to do this, experts said, is to reach out to your own neighbors, especially the elderly. Just knock on the doors and ask how they are through the screens, offering to run errands or receive food.
You can also help by buying and getting food from local businesses, bringing home a furry friend (pets have their own health benefits), donating blood and making masks, among others.
Online groups like Nextdoor also virtually connect neighbors, offering a way to communicate and ask for help. Facebook has just launched a community aid feature in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and Canada, with plans to expand to other countries.
Nonprofit groups around the world are living up to the situation by expanding virtual volunteering options, a movement that started in the 1990s and continues to grow. Today it is often called "electronic volunteering."
Called "the world's largest volunteer service organization," Points of Light offers a search engine in its All for Good volunteer market to find home volunteering projects in 37 countries around the world, many of which they are DIY projects.
The United Nations lists online volunteer activities that support women and youth, many of which are coronavirus-specific virtual projects. Idealist, an online nonprofit group based in New York, lists various volunteer and fundraising opportunities around the world on its website.
Table Wisdom allows you to connect by video chat with an international student or an isolated person in another city that has been affected by social distancing.
Career Village uses online volunteers to share career tips with low-income youth online, while Volunteer Match has ways to give back in health and medicine, children and youth, education and community development. Your site has a covid-19 center here.
Bookshare, which provides materials for children and adults with disabilities, needs virtual volunteers to complete tasks such as scanning and correcting book pages and classifying and describing images. Translators without borders need people to translate medical texts and crisis responses.
The Be My Eyes app connects sighted people with blind and low vision people who need help with everyday tasks. The idea started in 2012 in Denmark and is now available in more than 180 languages. According to the Be My Eyes website, it is "the largest online community for blind and low vision people, as well as one of the largest micro-volunteer platforms in the world."
Mental health assistance
With so many people facing anxiety, depression and other mental health problems in the wake of the pandemic, the need for people to volunteer or crisis counselors is on the rise. Crisis Text Line is based on trained crisis counselors who work from home and use active listening, collaborative problem solving and safety planning to help those in need.
In New York City, one of the areas most affected by coronavirus, volunteers are needed to call and speak to local seniors who are homebound and at risk of depression due to isolation from friends, family and neighbors.
These are just some of the amazing volunteer opportunities out there - there are many more in your own community, so reach out to local charities, food banks, and homeless shelters to see what they need and how you can help.
"I encourage people to think about their values and the causes that matter most," said Kim.
“Whatever the cause, this is a time in history when society most needs your service. If you can do it in compliance with public health guidelines, it will not only help heal the world, but it could also help yourself. ”
Volunteering
