Let’s care for the old and young together

Now here’s a good idea – encourage old folk and youngsters to interact together when they are being looked after. There’s the obvious pay-off that young people could provide stimulation for the old, while learning life lessons from the seniors. Win-win.

However, care homes and childcare providers are being very slow to collaborate, says Stephen Burke, director of United for All Ages, which campaigns to bring together people of different ages.

America leads the way in this. At a recent meeting between care homes and childcare providers to encourage young and old to get together, the Providence Mount St Vincent care facility in Seattle was a great example.

Here a nursery looking after more than 125 children is housed in the grounds of a home for 400 elderly adults. Five days a week, young and old come together in art, music and storytelling activities.

In the UK, we’re taking small steps towards carers of young and old working together.

A nursery is due to open on the site of a residential home in London in the autumn. The nursery and care home, separated by a hedge, are planning how they can get the two groups together. But co-location isn’t the only way to encourage older and younger people to mix. Intergenerational collaboration could be as simple as visits between care homes and child care centres, says Burke.

“There are social benefits for both younger and older people in terms of providing stimulation for older people, and young people learning from older people,” he says.

Collaboration could also reduce central running costs and improve recruitment and retention of staff.

“Staffing is a massive issue in both elderly care and child care,” said Burke.

“Places like Australia, where they have co-located nurseries and care homes, have found that recruitment and retention have improved because co-location makes it a more interesting place to work.”

A study of an intergenerational play group involving children aged up to four, care home residents and people with dementia found the adults had higher self-esteem and a greater sense of being connected to the community.

Burke says: “It can also help break down some of the barriers about ageism. So much of our society operates in a silo, and this could help break that down.”

Let’s do it!