Provision Living in St. Louis Hills recently started an intergenerational program in their memory care community. From the first week, they discovered when you pair young people with seniors, a lot of magical moments happen.
“This program helps to promote our mission of radiance; kids just ooze radiance. If the kids are energetic, the residents are energetic,” said Ann James, activities director at Provision Living at St. Louis Hills.
James, and Heather Schmidt, business office manager at the St. Louis Hills community, began thinking about designing an intergenerational program about one year ago. At first, they envisioned an Adopt-A-Grandparent program, but the ratio of residents to children did not work out one-to-one. After months of brainstorming, they approached Angela Miller, executive director at St. Louis Hills with their idea for the intergenerational program, which is now in place.
“We told Angela about our idea for the intergenerational program and she loved it. The timing just happens to be perfect, because the kids are on summer break,” said James.
The intergenerational program consists of 16 memory care residents and 10 or more young people, ages 6-19, who are the children of the Provision Living leadership team.
Each Monday through the Summer, the young volunteers will lead the residents in activities, serve and clean up in the dining room, plan the following week’s activities and take charge of a newly implemented mobile hydration station.
“We are really expanding and trying to do new, fun things. It is always a challenge, but, it is always fun when something is successful,” said James.
Activities with a purpose
Activities are set up in three or more separate stations. The children lead the activities, which are focused on the interests and abilities of the residents. Thus far, activities have included reading, drawing, walking with a buddy, balloon volleyball, sing-a-longs, and self-prepared snacks.
James tries to incorporate occupational therapy where possible. For example, a recent food activity really got the residents involved.
“The residents made peanut butter and banana sandwiches. They spread their own peanut butter and cut their own bananas. It is neat to see them doing for themselves, along with the kids,” said James.
Other activities aim to make residents feel special and pampered, like the recent nail salon activity, which was a big hit with the ladies.
“One of the girls brought her own bottles of nail polish, which are bright blue, bright pink and some have sparkles and glitter. She painted them on the residents. One resident said, ‘I have never had green nails before.’ So I told her, ‘You are so stylish right now.’ This is something that gets them in to a younger state of mind and brings youth into their lives, while still doing something they enjoy.” said James. “Everyone likes to get their nails done.”
Lemonade and water on the go
Hydration for seniors is critically important. To encourage all of the residents in both the memory care community and the assisted living community, James came up with the idea of a mobile hydration station as part of the intergenerational program.
“It is hard to get seniors to drink water. They don’t want to, but if a kid offers them water, they take it,” said James. “We are making it fun,” she added.
The children take the mobile hydration station from floor-to-floor, and offer every resident either a glass of water or a glass of lemonade. With 91 residents and 7 floors, that’s a lot of knocking on a lot of doors.
“A couple of people said, ‘I am not thirsty.’ My fourteen year old handled it really well, she said, ‘I understand you aren’t thirsty and that is ok. Let me just pour you a glass of water and I will leave it right next to your chair, so when you are thirsty, you don’t even have to get up.’ The residents agreed to the water,” said James.
One resident really seemed to appreciate the thoughtfulness and the company. She sent a handwritten note to James, to thank the children for bringing her lemonade. In the note, she asked them to please come back again.
“This is the kind of thing Heather and I were talking about. A glass of lemonade made that lady’s day, and my daughter can’t get out of the dining room fast enough. These residents love these kids. As an activities director, that’s great. As a mom, it is so rewarding to watch my kids get such pleasure working, interacting and making people feel important and happy,” said James. “There is no other greater joy than to see someone have a servant’s heart, to me that is what it is all about.”
When the children are not in the building, the staff takes the mobile hydration station around to the residents.
Intergenerational program is a success
According to James the intergenerational program is a success, with nearly all of the residents participating.
“There were only two residents who wanted to stay in their room, everyone else was out,” said James. “That is huge! It is actually funny to see what the residents will do for kids, verses what they will do for us,” she added.
When the children are done with activities in the memory care community, they are researching online for easy food and craft ideas and planning for the following week’s activities they will lead. They also work in the assisted living dining room, serving desserts, cleaning up, filling water glasses and clearing dishes.
“It has been such an easy experience, because the kids are so well behaved. All of the kids have just stepped up to the plate and it’s been such a good experience. It really is a win-win situation,” said James.
The intergenerational program will continue during the school year and will be restructured to allow the young people to participate during school breaks and holidays.
Intergenerational program benefits include:
- Senior participation increases, which results in more active living when children are involved
- Seniors with lower cognitive function due to dementia have greater understanding, because children often explain things in simple terms
- Encourages communication between the children and seniors and each generation learns from the other
- Instills in the children the importance of taking care of others
- Children enjoy seeing seniors have fun
- Leading activities and coming up with good ideas builds confidence in the children
- Children bring energy levels up in a room, which can help residents have fun and feel better, a child’s excitement is infectious
- Children feel accomplished when leading seniors in activities and projects