Students Welcomed to Live in Nursing Facilities

According to an article on CityLab, some nursing homes are allowing college students to move into their facilities under mutually beneficial terms. This intergenerational living model is starting to grow in popularity in places like the Netherlands, France, and the United States (originally published online October 2, 2015).

In the Netherlands, says the article, students may each spend about $410 a month on rent, and student housing is often hard to find in addition to being small and dilapidated. At the same time, long-term care facilities in the country are facing problems of their own. In 2012, the Dutch government decided to stop funding continuing care costs for citizens over age 80 who weren’t in dire need. 
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At one long-term care facility in the Netherlands, Humanitas, students are able to stay in vacant rooms there free of charge in exchange for 30 hours of volunteer work per month. Within the volunteer agreement, students may spend time teaching residents new skills, like email, social media, Skyping, and even graffiti art.

“For the residents, the students represent a connection to the outside world. When the students come home from a class, concert, or party, they share those experiences with their elderly neighbors. The conversation moves from aches and pains to whether a student’s girlfriend will be staying the night.”

Since Humanitas opened its doors to students in 2012, two other nursing homes in the Netherlands have followed suit, and a similar program was recently introduced in Lyon, France.

In the United States several years ago, Judson Manor, a retirement community in Cleveland, OH, started accepting students from the Cleveland Institutes of Art and Music. One student reportedly became so close with one of the residents that she asked the resident to be the flower girl in her wedding.

“As at Humanitas, the students are integrated among the resident population and have access to all the same amenities. To earn their keep, they participate in the musical arts committee, assist staff therapists, and volunteer at various events throughout the year. Judson also requires them to give quarterly performances at each of their three campuses.”

Matthew Kaplan, PhD, a professor of intergenerational programs and aging at Pennsylvania State University, says these relationships are much more impactful than “the one-shot-only activity, where kids come into the long-term care facility, sing a song and then go home.” That may be nice, he says, “but it’s not until [the older and younger people] have a real relationship—which takes a lot of interaction—that it becomes meaningful.”—Amanda Del Signore