Dustin Prestridge

My research questions come from home care. After two decades in training, compliance, and vendor relations for large technology organizations, I founded Wellbrella, a home care company in Seattle. Running it made me question how care plans account for loneliness and the relationships that develop during everyday visits.

Those questions brought me back to school to study psychology. I now study at Seattle Central College and serve as a Research Assistant in the University of Washington’s CREATIV Lab.

My writing includes public articles and creative nonfiction. My essay “The Shoe I Kept” won first place in the League for Innovation International Student Literary Competition and is forthcoming in Hippocampus Magazine. My essay “Boy, Betty, Bingo” was selected for Phi Theta Kappa’s Nota Bene anthology, and I was named a Phi Theta Kappa Reynolds Scholar.

I study how everyday interaction between paid caregivers and older adults might reduce loneliness in home care. My current conceptual paper proposes that consistent, individualized attention may weaken expectations of indifference. A related project examines how federal home health aide training standards address communication and what they leave out about conversation and emotional support. I am also analyzing National Health and Aging Trends Study data to test how paid and family care relate to loneliness in older adults.

At the University of Washington, I am a Research Assistant in Dr. Patrick Raue’s CREATIV Lab, where I support an active trial of a depression program for older adults. I contribute to literature reviews and assist with informed-consent procedures. I also built and maintain the lab’s website. This role connects with my interest in behavioral activation for late-life depression.

Public scholarship

• Loneliness Is a Care Need: Why Human Connection Should Be Part of Home Care National Council on Aging, August 2026 Read article →
• We Didn't Mean to Design Conversation Out of Home Care Generations Now, American Society on Aging, July 2026 Read article →

Under review

• Beyond physical care: Paid caregiver interaction as an underused resource for reducing loneliness in home care Commentary under review, Journal of Aging & Social Policy Examines conversation during paid home care visits as an overlooked resource for reducing loneliness, and why current home care systems treat it as incidental.
• Reporting is not conversation: The relational gap in federal home health aide training standards Under review, Modern Psychological Studies Shows how federal training standards for home health aides define communication as reporting on a client rather than talking with one.

Presentations

• Paid Caregiver Interaction: An Underused Resource for Reducing Loneliness in Home Care Accepted poster presentation · Gerontological Society of America Annual Scientific Meeting · National Harbor, MD · November 7, 2026 (upcoming) Abstract in Innovation in Aging, GSA 2026 Annual Scientific Meeting supplement Examines how paid caregiver interaction may help reduce loneliness in home care. View poster page →

Conference abstracts

• Beyond physical care: Paid caregiver interaction as an underused resource for reducing loneliness in home care Abstract submitted, National Conference on Undergraduate Research, April 2027 Looks ahead to what the argument would require of training, payment, and measurement, and considers its limitations.
• Loneliness across care arrangements: Family, paid, and mixed help among older adults nationwide Abstract submitted, Western Psychological Association Annual Convention, Pasadena, CA, April 2027
• Starting paid home care is not associated with lower loneliness in older adults: A national panel study Abstract submitted, Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, Seattle, WA, May 2027

Public comment

• Comment on the proposed 2028 redesign of the National Health Interview Survey Submitted to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, Docket No. CDC-2026-1387, September 2026 Recommends that the survey keep its national loneliness measure and its questions on help at home, separating paid caregivers from unpaid family and friends. View comment →

Publications

• Boy, Betty, Bingo Forthcoming, Nota Bene: Literary and Visual Arts Honors Anthology (32nd edition). Selected from more than 3,200 entries; Phi Theta Kappa Reynolds Scholar, 2026
• The Shoe I Kept Forthcoming, Hippocampus Magazine. First place, League for Innovation International Student Literary Competition, 2026

Readings

• Boy, Betty, Bingo Reading and discussion, Educational Forum, PTK Catalyst 2027, Grapevine, TX, April 2027 (upcoming)
• The Shoe I Kept Invited reading, Hugo House, Seattle, July 2026

At Seattle Central College, I serve as a teaching assistant for The Art and Science of Losing, a first-year learning community pairing psychology and literature. I also tutor English language learners.

I founded the Psychology Club and Drama Club and established campus chapters of two honor societies: Psi Beta and Delta Alpha Pi. I am now starting a chapter of Alpha Sigma Lambda, the national honor society for nontraditional students. I also serve as the student member of a faculty tenure review committee.

I am also involved in campus theatre. I co-directed Charles Mee’s Full Circle. The full production is available to watch. I am now directing and producing Carlo Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters, in a new version by Tom Cone, for a March 2027 performance.

• American Psychological Association, Student Affiliate (Divisions 2, 20, and 38)
• Association for Psychological Science, Undergraduate Student Affiliate
• Gerontological Society of America
• American Society on Aging
• Psi Beta, Seattle Central College chapter, Founder and President
• Delta Alpha Pi, Seattle Central College chapter, Founder
• Alpha Sigma Lambda, Seattle Central College chapter, Founder (charter in progress)
• Phi Theta Kappa, Alpha Chi Zeta chapter

• Email mail@dustinprestridge.com
• CV Download CV (PDF)
• LinkedIn dustinprestridge
• ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9982-7860