I wonder have you thought about what’s
going to happen is you age as you begin
to lose your memory your mobility and
your hearing
who’s going to look after you who’s
going to look after your parents when
they age as we get older we lose our
social connections and all the familiar
people families change our children move
away to live lives of their own friends
and family die increasing globalization
means that we can choose where we live
we can change where we live we can go
anywhere in the world and for all the
people hope is replaced by fear and
hopelessness we have increasing
isolation of old people as I was putting
this talk together my mind went back to
my days as a student physiotherapist and
my first geriatric placement that term
geriatric is a term I don’t like I
didn’t like it then and I don’t like it
now and the reason is it just strikes me
that it’s about being incapable I recall
as I walked up to my first placement as
a student and I reached the door of the
geriatric ward the first thing that hit
me was the smell of stale urine it’s a
smell that stays with you and it’s one
I’ve never forgotten when I stepped onto
the ward and I looked down the ward what
I saw was two long rows of old people
some of them drooling some of them
calling out
but busy staff could not attend to them
wine the clock forwards 40 years or so
and what do we have we have modern wards
we have modern residential homes and I
look at the residential homes that I
visit a nice that I visit standard
residential homes and I think at these
places where I would want to spend the
rest of my life
and regrettably the answer is no and I
have to ask myself why I see them as
depressing institutionalize and lonely
places so what is it that I’m looking
for what would I want in a home and the
opportunity came to answer this question
when I was approached by a TV company to
look at what we might do to improve the
lives of older people and that’s why I’m
standing here tonight to share with you
what I’ve come to know and what I think
would make a big difference to us as we
age projects in the United States have
been looking at how we can manage this
I’m here to share their experiences and
what we wanted to do was to do an
experiment that use those experiences
and introduce a nursery into an old
people’s home when I think about a
nursery in an old people’s home some of
you might be raising an eyebrow we did
this experiment my colleagues and I a
researcher and adjourned to a
geriatrician and what we wanted to do
was to take some measurements to see
what difference it could make so before
the experiment started we did baseline
measurements we looked at older people
and their mood we looked at their
strength we looked at their physical
activity I did a test that measured the
time they took to get out of their chair
walk three meters walk back to the chair
and sit down a timed up and go test it’s
called we also looked at their ability
to look after themselves many of the
older people talked about despair how
despairing no hope for the future and I
wondered what difference would this make
we measured their baseline measurements
at three weeks and at the end of six
weeks we introduced activities with the
children there were indoor activities
outdoor activities tabletop activities
arts and crafts a variety of things and
most of these older people engaged well
what did we find
well at the end of six weeks there was
an extraordinary an amazing turnaround
when we had measured the older people as
I said most of them were depressed and
too significantly so when we measured
them none of them were depressed they
spoke of hope for the future they were
more physically active they joined in a
intergenerational sports day a sports
day there they were competing on the
lawns of the home with their
four-year-old not just can be running
one resident said he can’t remember the
last time he ran one gentleman I recall
at the start of the experiment said this
is a waste of time
it’s not going to work and there he was
playing sleeping lions on the floor with
the four-year-olds
something we didn’t set out to measure
was touch and I mention it here because
it’s something the residents shared with
us one resident said she couldn’t
remember the last time she was touched
except for when a carer came to change
her can you imagine not being touched
not being hugged the first thing these
children did when they met their friends
was to run to them and give them a hug
the children ate with residents they
shared a picnic all the people often eat
alone they were chosen as best friends
to the delight of the older residents of
foils are choosing them as their best
friends Society cannot afford to ignore
the challenges that aging brings
depression is a major and a growing
problem problem amongst our older
generation we have the opportunity to
stem that tide we can make choices we at
this moment in time you can see what’s
happening around us and make that
connection when we looked at all of
these older people we saw that there
were problems in doing the project but
we were asked questions and questions
have been asked about well what about
health and safety these four year olds
around older people what about infection
what about staff treating little
children being expected treat older
people the skill makes
well I know and I’m telling you now that
these schemes have been run successfully
across the world within the United
States on the continent in Japan and
even in the UK a new scheme started in
London very successful the problems have
been addressed they can be ironed out so
what do we do next I say to you find
that local residential home near you
find that older person living on their
own lonely and start to make that
connection and some of you probably
still procrastinating and thinking well
not so sure well what I’d like you to do
when you leave this room today is to get
a calculator
or if you prefer pen and paper and I’d
like you to go home and do a
cost-benefit analysis of a hug thank you
[Applause]
going to happen is you age as you begin
to lose your memory your mobility and
your hearing
who’s going to look after you who’s
going to look after your parents when
they age as we get older we lose our
social connections and all the familiar
people families change our children move
away to live lives of their own friends
and family die increasing globalization
means that we can choose where we live
we can change where we live we can go
anywhere in the world and for all the
people hope is replaced by fear and
hopelessness we have increasing
isolation of old people as I was putting
this talk together my mind went back to
my days as a student physiotherapist and
my first geriatric placement that term
geriatric is a term I don’t like I
didn’t like it then and I don’t like it
now and the reason is it just strikes me
that it’s about being incapable I recall
as I walked up to my first placement as
a student and I reached the door of the
geriatric ward the first thing that hit
me was the smell of stale urine it’s a
smell that stays with you and it’s one
I’ve never forgotten when I stepped onto
the ward and I looked down the ward what
I saw was two long rows of old people
some of them drooling some of them
calling out
but busy staff could not attend to them
wine the clock forwards 40 years or so
and what do we have we have modern wards
we have modern residential homes and I
look at the residential homes that I
visit a nice that I visit standard
residential homes and I think at these
places where I would want to spend the
rest of my life
and regrettably the answer is no and I
have to ask myself why I see them as
depressing institutionalize and lonely
places so what is it that I’m looking
for what would I want in a home and the
opportunity came to answer this question
when I was approached by a TV company to
look at what we might do to improve the
lives of older people and that’s why I’m
standing here tonight to share with you
what I’ve come to know and what I think
would make a big difference to us as we
age projects in the United States have
been looking at how we can manage this
I’m here to share their experiences and
what we wanted to do was to do an
experiment that use those experiences
and introduce a nursery into an old
people’s home when I think about a
nursery in an old people’s home some of
you might be raising an eyebrow we did
this experiment my colleagues and I a
researcher and adjourned to a
geriatrician and what we wanted to do
was to take some measurements to see
what difference it could make so before
the experiment started we did baseline
measurements we looked at older people
and their mood we looked at their
strength we looked at their physical
activity I did a test that measured the
time they took to get out of their chair
walk three meters walk back to the chair
and sit down a timed up and go test it’s
called we also looked at their ability
to look after themselves many of the
older people talked about despair how
despairing no hope for the future and I
wondered what difference would this make
we measured their baseline measurements
at three weeks and at the end of six
weeks we introduced activities with the
children there were indoor activities
outdoor activities tabletop activities
arts and crafts a variety of things and
most of these older people engaged well
what did we find
well at the end of six weeks there was
an extraordinary an amazing turnaround
when we had measured the older people as
I said most of them were depressed and
too significantly so when we measured
them none of them were depressed they
spoke of hope for the future they were
more physically active they joined in a
intergenerational sports day a sports
day there they were competing on the
lawns of the home with their
four-year-old not just can be running
one resident said he can’t remember the
last time he ran one gentleman I recall
at the start of the experiment said this
is a waste of time
it’s not going to work and there he was
playing sleeping lions on the floor with
the four-year-olds
something we didn’t set out to measure
was touch and I mention it here because
it’s something the residents shared with
us one resident said she couldn’t
remember the last time she was touched
except for when a carer came to change
her can you imagine not being touched
not being hugged the first thing these
children did when they met their friends
was to run to them and give them a hug
the children ate with residents they
shared a picnic all the people often eat
alone they were chosen as best friends
to the delight of the older residents of
foils are choosing them as their best
friends Society cannot afford to ignore
the challenges that aging brings
depression is a major and a growing
problem problem amongst our older
generation we have the opportunity to
stem that tide we can make choices we at
this moment in time you can see what’s
happening around us and make that
connection when we looked at all of
these older people we saw that there
were problems in doing the project but
we were asked questions and questions
have been asked about well what about
health and safety these four year olds
around older people what about infection
what about staff treating little
children being expected treat older
people the skill makes
well I know and I’m telling you now that
these schemes have been run successfully
across the world within the United
States on the continent in Japan and
even in the UK a new scheme started in
London very successful the problems have
been addressed they can be ironed out so
what do we do next I say to you find
that local residential home near you
find that older person living on their
own lonely and start to make that
connection and some of you probably
still procrastinating and thinking well
not so sure well what I’d like you to do
when you leave this room today is to get
a calculator
or if you prefer pen and paper and I’d
like you to go home and do a
cost-benefit analysis of a hug thank you
[Applause]
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