The past few years of COVID lockdowns and restrictions have been tough on all parts of our community. It’s not only older adults who have felt isolated, many teens and young people have missed out on interaction with friends and family. Two RetireAustralia villages have experimented with programs to help bring older and younger generations together and have been surprised by the benefits it’s brought.
Old People’s Home for Teenagers at Murray Gardens
Murray Gardens Retirement Village manager Robyn Anderson was intrigued when she was approached by a year 11 student from a local high school. Heather was looking to spend some time in the village as part of a community service program for her school curriculum.
“The week she was due to come was the same week the ABC was releasing the new series of Old People’s Home for Teenagers, so we asked Heather to watch Old People’s Home for Four-year-olds and do a little research,” says Robyn “We said we’d like to do the intergenerational experiment with her.”
To help make the most of Heather’s time in the village, Robyn put together a program for her to follow each day of the week-long visit and she says it was this program that was the key to success.
“It was amazing, actually, it was better than I could imagine,” says Robyn. “I was so surprised by how much the residents enjoyed it.”
A stitch in time
Part of Heather’s itinerary included knitting each day with a group of ladies Robyn calls “the Nonas”, the nonagenarians in the village. This first inkling Robyn had that this program was successful was the fact the Nonas would dress up for Heather’s visits. “When they put lipstick on, we know something special is going on,” says Robyn.
“They would sit at our big community table and teach Heather to knit. They shared with her why they knit and what it meant to them,” Robyn explains. “The Nonas suggested that maybe if she was stressing about a homework assignment or the night before an exam, she might like to pull out her knitting and could find that it was stress relieving.”
Building connections
Every lunchtime Heather sat at a different table to spend time and get to know all the residents. “Once the residents knew she was going to be on their table you could see them fussing about and dressing up, wanting to make a good impression on her,” says Robyn. “Our serviced apartment residents sit together for every meal, so when they went to their apartments and called family that night, they had something new to talk about, which was lovely.”
It wasn’t just the serviced apartment residents who benefited, Heather’s visit allowed Robyn to involve all parts of the village.
“Having Heather here gave me a good excuse to knock on the doors of our independent living residents,” says Robyn. “We have one lady who is quite isolated, the village is her family, and she has these beautiful citrus trees in her backyard. So, when I was putting together the itinerary, I rang her and asked if it would be alright if our student came down and collected some citrus for our kitchen. Heather went down and the hour had gone by and I had to get the maintenance team to go down there. The resident said ‘I don’t want her to leave’.”
Tea for more than two
Every morning, Heather was involved in the village morning tea which turned into a cultural experience. Coming from Zimbabwe, Heather was unfamiliar with some of the old-fashioned Australian treats she helped to put together each day, including cheese and gherkin bread, scones and even fairy bread.
Heather would then share the morning tea and chat with the residents as they came in to read the paper and have a cuppa.
“The serviced apartment residents and independent living residents used to socialise together, but COVID meant this happened less often,” says Robyn. “A recent boom in new independent living residents also meant that a lot of the residents didn’t know each other. Heather being at the morning tea and meeting a range of people allowed her to actually introduce the residents to each other, which was another lovely and surprising benefit.”
Robyn says other schools in the area have heard about their experience with Heather and have reached out about replicating the visit. Robyn says she would love to have more students come to the village as: “We just didn’t have enough Heather to go around!”
Love at first visit
Meanwhile in Armidale, Sue Nelson, the village manager at Newling Gardens Retirement Village, says COVID and the isolation of her residents prompted her to reach out to a local school just a block away.
“I contacted somebody at the school and we got chatting about it, and she just said that sounds like a great opportunity,” Sue explains. “So every Friday for an hour, the students come across and we organise an activity or two. We put it out to the residents and it was all very experimental.”
Sue wasn’t sure how the visits would work and was pleasantly surprised how it all came together and the residents enjoyed the visit.
“That first visit, the residents all sat around, you know one or two to a table,” Sue says. “The kids came over, but we told them beforehand to bring a photo of themselves or their family or their pet. Something that would start a conversation, and we said the same to the residents. It was amazing. The kids walked in sat down and it just clicked.”
During that first visit, one teacher pulled Sue aside and pointed out a student. “See this student over here,” she told Sue. “Normally he doesn’t interact at all with the other kids. Sits by himself in the playground and is just a quiet student. Look at him! He has a big smile on his face, and I don’t think he’s drawn breath.”
Expecting the unexpected
For Sue the most precious and special experiences have been the ones they haven’t planned and that happened right from that first visit.
“In one group there were two ladies, one who just lost her husband and the other had lost her daughter and they were speaking to a younger boy about 12,” Sue says. “They were asking what does mum do and what does dad do and then he broke down a little bit and had a few tears. He said ‘I lost my dad’. They said it’s ok. Everybody loses somebody and they talked about their experiences, and he talked about his thoughts. Things just happened without being planned, so it was a beautiful moment, absolutely beautiful.”
The program has been such a success and the school has so many students wanting to take part, Sue is looking at extending and expanding it.
“Now they want to do it every Friday for three hours. That’s going to be my next challenge,” says Sue. “But it’s well worth it, especially when you see what the residents and the students get out of it.”
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