Social activation of the elderly : A social experiment

Social isolation and understimulation are considered to be major problems among institutionalized aged. This article describes an 'activation' program for elderly people living in a senior citizen apartment building. The intention of the research team was to devise a program together with the elderly and the staff, the goals being to increase social activation and self-dependence among the alderly. The program devised was implemented within the apartment's existing financial framework, involving no additional costs, overtime work or external resources. The program was designed in such a way as to allow for measurement of social activation in both the experimental and control groups. This report focuses primarily on the problems which arose in the personnel group in conjunction with the program. Evaluation of these problems was carried out by means of tape-recorded personnel meetings. This paper presents the analysis of these recordings. It was of major importance to the program that any organizational changes be enacted only on the initiative of the elderly and the staff themselves. The results show that it is possible, with relatively simple and inexpensive methods, to stimulate the elderly's interests and counteract social isolation and understimulation.