Posted on 04/10/2015 6:23:45 PM PDT by Lorianne
Humanitas, a social service organization in the Netherlands, has come up with a brilliant model for helping students with their expenses and the elderly with the care and social interaction that they need to remain physically and psychologically healthy. In return for free lodging at a retirement home in the Dutch town of Deventer, six students will spend at least 30 hours a month with the 160 elderly residents living there, doing anything from helping prepare their meals and shopping with/for them to teaching them to use computers or even paint street art!
The program, spearheaded by Humanitas Deventer CEO Gea Sijpkes, has inspired social organizations elsewhere in Europe to explore similar opportunities as well!
This isn’t meant as any kind of endorsement of what we might think of as a socialist country and its practices; but not one American politician would ever, ever think of nor propose such a thing because they could never achieve any personal aggrandizement from the practice.
Innovative way to bring life into a waiting to die center.
I could do it but I wouldn’t want my grandmother involved.
This is the option when the traditional family no longer exists?
I’ve always kind of liked the Walton’s model of family.
It’s the way I was brought up. We take care of our own. Unfornunately, my siblings didn’t feel the same, so I take care of our parents. Wouldn’t trade it....but not easy. But, that’s the way it SHOULD be.
Same with my family....on both sides. It was great.
That's not always the case.Think back to the 50's (if you're old enough...I am) and you'll recall that middle class families usually only needed one breadwinner.Such families could have grandma or grandpa live with them.Not today...most households need two incomes today.
Great idea. I like it.
I have had to visit relatives in nursing homes and its hell there, and in most cases they really cheer up when they get visiting company.
Earlier than that. My GF, who didn’t finish school, worked his ass off to help send his brother to college in the 1930’s. He was later to become a notable entrepreneur in this state.
I’ve seen a program on a college campus where exactly this took place. The students took the elderly people out for a Saturday at the college.
I would see them all, engaged, laughing, talking over lunch. It was a wonderful program; I’m not sure whether they still do it, or if the Prof. who initiated it is still there.
I’m an old lady now, but when I was growing up, people had their parents and grandparents in their homes with them. I believe it’s the right way, when the old folks get past the age where they can live alone. It’s good for the entire family, and keeps the youngest in touch with the oldest.
(Of course, with women working outside of the home, that may not work anymore....but all kids should have frequent engagement with the elderly.)
-JT
Something happened to me when I was in my early ‘twenties.
A boyfriend took me to visit his family, in his hometown; and while we were there, we visited his grandmother who was in a nursing home.
After sitting together and talking with her for a little while, this sweet lady asked me, “Will you kiss me?”
I took great joy in giving her a hug and kiss. I was raised by my own grandmother, and it just seemed awful to me that she was in a ‘fix’ where she had to ask for a kiss, a simple sign of affection and notice from another.
I’ve never forgotten that...
-JT
Or not...
Kissing is a bit much. We are not a kissing society. But I appreciate your story.
My favorite grandmother never seemed interested in physical affection until a certain point in her life, she loved to look strong. We rarely touched but she was the greatest grandma in the world, we all loved to be with her. She was like superwoman.
But in her 90s when she was having trouble walking, didn't travel outside her property anymore, hired people to take care of her house and yard, spent lots of time alone (didn't need a aid yet) , when I was leaving to go home one day she asked me for a hug, and I gave her one and hugged her every goodbye after that. We could see that this period wouldn't last for many more years, a few years later she had to be taken care of.
She was unlucky in living too long.
She was lucky in being financially secure and having family (grandkids and kids) who loved her.
Of course we are a ‘kissing’ society. I always kissed my Granny and my Dad on the cheek, when they were going away for awhile, or I was leaving.
Before my father-in-law died two years ago, my husband would always kiss him on the cheek when we were leaving from visiting.
Maybe it’s an ‘ethnic’ thing; I’m pretty much a Celt, and the ‘Husband Unit’ is Italian. (The grandmother in the nursing home was Irish.)
The lady just wanted some recognition and connection; I think she felt lonely and bereft. The typical nursing home will do that to you, especially to a woman of her generation and era.
-JT
No doubt.
I don't recall seeing much or any kissing in my life, not just me but between others, short the romantic kind which is obviously limited.
I find it kind of gross.
That is basically the same as my Mom’s side of the family. Her mother was widowed very, very young, and so my mom and her sister were raised by my grandmother on my great-grandparents’ farm.
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