Old People’s Home for Teenagers: Why Geriatricians should be advocates for Intergenerational Contact
By Dr Stephanie Ward, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney
One of the great joys of geriatric medicine is the broad opportunities it can offer. As geriatricians, we may find ourselves marching down any one of many avenues, be it in acute medicine, outreach, peri-operative care, or sub-specialisation such as geriatric oncology. Many are further enriched by teaching, in administration, and in research. In our quest to improve outcomes for older people, as a community we continue to evolve our specialty by forging exciting new pathways upon which to walk. Yet, even by this reckoning of the expansive scope a geriatric medicine career can provide, a stint in televised factual entertainment must surely remain as one of the more unusual and unanticipated roads a geriatrician may step onto.
And yet, that is exactly where Sue Kurrle and I found ourselves when we joined as expert geriatricians on ABC’s “Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds”, a televised social experiment that examined the effects of an intergenerational classroom. In true geriatric medicine style, we worked as part of a multi-disciplinary expert panel, alongside a physio and psychologist, selecting and obtaining health measures to assess the impact of the programme, and we watched on with genuine curiosity to see how it would all unfold. Whilst cautiously optimistic, it’s fair to say the even our most hopeful of expectations were surpassed.
Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds neither invented the concept intergenerational programmes, nor was it the first such program to take place in Australia. Yet the show, and its subsequent iterations including Old People’s Home for Teenagers, have amplified an important conversation around the possibilities such programs can offer. Intergenerational contact refers to the purposeful bringing together of two generations for the benefit of both, with bi-directional learning at its heart. The models and populations involved can be diverse, yet each has the potential to offer older people a sense of purpose and connection. By doing so, these programs may reduce loneliness, social isolation and related sequalae of depression, cognitive decline and even frailty. For younger people, the benefits of spending enriched time with an older person range from enhanced pro-social skill development in the very young, to increased confidence in the teenager years. At a societal level, intergenerational programs may be one of the most effective means to address ageism.
Interest in this area from a range of stakeholders, including educators, aged care providers and researchers, is growing. We argue that geriatricians, as clinicians who understand the diverse needs of older people, who champion holistic care, and who are seasoned in service development and evaluation, bring an important voice to this conversation. There is much work to be done to promote the judicious and sensitive design and implementation of intergenerational programmes Australia-wide, ranging from research, to co-design to workforce training and funding advocacy.
For geriatricians and trainees inspired by this exciting area, The Australian Institute of Intergenerational Practice is leading this charge, and we can recommend the website and membership (www.aiip.net.au). And for those new to the concept or want to be reminded about what intergenerational programmes can achieve, Old People’s Home for Teenagers Series 2 returns Tuesday 3 October 8.30pm on ABC Iview and ABC TV #OldPeoplesHomeAU.
Image courtesy ABC
