An aged care facility in Deventer in the Netherlands has found a creative solution to the ‘intergenerational problem.’ They’re inviting students to stay in the home rent-free, as long as they entertain and socialise with their elderly residents. They’re free to come and go as they please, as long as they don’t bother the older residents. They can have friends over for drinks or even have a partner stay overnight. There are no curfews or any other restrictions, as long as the students are reasonable.

The students are carefully vetted by the home’s management, looking at their backgrounds and their motivations for wanting to participate in the program. In Deventer, the ratio is currently six students to 160 residents.

Under the scheme which started two years ago, students receive a small apartment in exchange for at least 30 hours per month spent engaging with their older neighbours. This could include talking, watching sports or celebrating birthdays, for example. Activities are also offered by the students. One student has been giving spray cans to the elderly and teaching them about graffiti in the garden, another has been providing lessons in computing. When the elderly patient can’t leave the facility, the students bring the outside world in.

Loneliness and social isolation were found to be significant factors in the mortality rates among older men and women according to a 2012 report by the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. The elderly surrounded by others, particularly younger people, tend to live longer and healthier lives.

The benefits don’t just flow in the one direction either. As one of the program participants said, “They can teach you a lot and you know them person by person and not by a group of elderly people.” Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks for students is that people die, and this takes an emotional toll.

The head of the care home described how, “When you’re a 96 year old with a knee problem, well, the knee isn’t going to get much better, the doctors can’t do much. But what we do is create an environment where you forget about the painful knee.”

Similar programs have been set up in Lyons in France and Cleveland in Ohio, although in Lyon friends of the students are not permitted to visit. In Spain, a pilot program during the 1990’s proved to be so successful that it has been replicated in 20 additional care homes in the country. In Britain, attention is being paid to incorporating aged care into other forms of housing to prevent the elderly from being cut off in “care ghettoes.”

There have also been variations on the intergenerational theme around the world, with elderly people renting out rooms in their house or apartment for example, or housing projects which have been built specifically to house young people with the elderly.

Australia has an ageing population and a shortage of cheap student housing. Running a similar program in Australia could certainly prove to be worthwhile.

When the focus in aged care is on compliance and certification, the whole of workplace can suffer, including staff morale. Sometimes lateral thinking is needed to resolve it.