


Tom Sarlo
Jun 16, 2023
Sweden
Categories:
Housing, Residential, Friendships, Socialization, Elderly, Youth
From the British Broadcasting Corporation comes an interesting article about combatting loneliness by pairing up youth and elderly. The culture in Sweden encourages its young population to move away from family and become independent. There can be many challenges, mainly the feeling of loneliness. In many countries, feeling lonely is accepted as a social norm, especially when retired people find themselves alone after years of companionship.
In the seaside city of Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, there is a residential apartment building. The tenants are a blend of young and retired people. An experiment and research are taking place at the apartment complex under the guidance of Dragania Curovic to see the benefit to older residents of living in close proximity to younger people.
All the residents are single and from various backgrounds, personalities, interests, values, and religions. The young and retired folks are placed in pairs, and they signed contracts, and agreed to visit each other for two hours a week minimum. They are required to spend time in common areas of the complex. The common areas include a gym, a central kitchen, arts and crafts, and a library. These areas of congregation encourage the paired residents to visit and also socialize. Often, folks living alone, whether young or retired, find themselves isolated in their apartments. The younger generation may find much time spent with cell phones or computers. The retired residents may spend countless days alone with no interaction. The first objective of the experiment was to address loneliness in the older population but the research found that young residents greatly benefitted too.
Many societies isolate the elderly from the rest of the populations, such as senior communities, groups homes, nursing homes, senior centers and many older adults rarely interact with younger adults. In a few societies today and many more throughout history, the elderly were part of a nuclear family, and the wisdom of the elders passed to younger generations. Likewise, elderly people learned from younger people. Humans are social animals and when we create a society where generations are separated and isolated it can create loneliness and a huge loss of accumulated wisdom acquired throughout the years as elderly people pass away.
Consider an experiment in your hometown. Talk with a few senior citizen homes or community centers and organize a small program that pairs senior citizens with young adults. Now go to your local colleges and talk with professors that teach courses, such as sociology, or health, or medicine, or anthropology. Organize a program that includes students creating a relationship with a senior citizen. Use similar requirements with the program in Sweden or customize to your community's circumstances. Report out on the results and celebrate the likely success of it when it concludes. (It could run the length of a school semester, for example.) Start small, and if it is successful, then the college or the senior center may pick it up and grow it. It's not very difficult to start but it requires some close coordination.
Humanity evolves to its highest and greatest potential when all members of a society have the opportunities to participate and be fulfilled. Let's re-engage with everyone that makes our local community special, young and old alike.
Photo by cottonbro studios on Pexels.
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