Spanish edition of 'Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds'

Inspired by “Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds” – Spain broadcasters have followed suit in making use of TV to disseminate good practices for intergenerational projects.

“Cosas de la Edad” [Things about Age] is the name of a project in South Madrid which brings together four-year-old pre-school toddlers and older people from a local nursing home. It’s also the name of the TV programme which shows us the project at work. The basic aim of course is to foster positive relationships between the very young and the very old, relationships which would otherwise remain the preserve of the family. But there is also a research angle. The project is being evaluated by a research team who will assess the impact of sustained – daily in fact – intergenerational contact on the well-being of the ten older people who participated, and will try and get a grip on what the experience meant for the ten children who visited them.

The project ran for six consecutive weeks, two hours a day and five days a week. After watching the first episode of Cosas de la Edad, I feel confident that no one could be untouched by what the programme was showing. Live reality TV, used in this way, engages our sympathies and imagination. It is a very effective means for prompting – and informing – careful reflection on how we want to live in a society with an increasingly ageing population.

About the Author:
Cláudia Azevedo is Research Fellow for LARNA (Latin American Research Network on Ageing) at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing.

Please read the full article on The Oxford Institute of Population Ageing