Konstantina Kontopoulou, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Economics and Political Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Παραπομπή ως: Kontopoulou, K. 2024. «Towards new social policies of bridging the gaps: an alternative model of family», Archive, 20(1), (Jan 1): 6-13. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10655827, ARK:/13960/s2tncq1v9dr
Περίληψη
Η γήρανση, η αναδοχή παιδιών και η ιδρυματοποίηση είναι τρία αλληλένδετα ζητήματα που μοιράζονται μια ισχυρή αίσθηση περιθωριοποίησης. Τέτοιες ομάδες ανθρώπων μπορούν να επωφεληθούν από την αυξημένη ευαισθητοποίηση, χάρη στις προσπάθειες της κοινωνικής εργασίας και των ειδικών ψυχικής υγείας σε συναφείς τομείς. Επιπλέον, ακόμη και με περιορισμένους πόρους, οι κοινωνικοί λειτουργοί και οι υπεύθυνοι χάραξης κοινωνικής πολιτικής μπορούν να ανταλλάξουν ιδέες για την ενίσχυση της κοινωνικής ευημερίας, έτσι ώστε να αρχίσουν να λειτουργούν εναλλακτικά οικογενειακά μοντέλα ως μέρος των κυβερνητικών προγραμμάτων. Το δοκίμιο αναλύει μια πειραματική ιδέα που έχει συμβεί περιστασιακά σε διάφορα έθνη, λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τα λιγοστά δεδομένα που είναι διαθέσιμα σήμερα. Σκοπός του είναι να προωθήσει την κοινωνική αλληλεπίδραση μεταξύ των παιδιών που ζουν σε βρεφονηπιακούς σταθμούς και ορφανοτροφεία. Το άρθρο συζητά τα υπάρχοντα δεδομένα, ενώ προτείνει ιδέες και νέες επιπτώσεις συναφών μελετών και των αποτελεσμάτων τους. Δίνει, επίσης, σημασία στο εναλλακτικό μοντέλο της οικογένειας σε κοινόχρηστους χώρους. Παρά την εξαιρετικά περιορισμένη βιβλιογραφία, καινοτόμα άρθρα βασισμένα σε καινοτόμες ιδέες μπορούν να δώσουν ώθηση για περαιτέρω πειραματισμό, μελέτη ή εφαρμογές.
Abstract
Ageing, foster children, and institutionalization are three interconnected issues that share a strong sense of marginalization. These groups of people can benefit from increased awareness thanks to the efforts of social work and mental health specialists in related sectors. Additionally, even with limited resources, social workers and social policy makers may exchange ideas for enhancing social welfare so that alternative family models could begin to function as part of government programs. This essay will analyze an experimental notion that has occurred occasionally in several nations while taking into account the scant data that is currently available. The purpose of this essay is to promote social interaction among children living in nursery homes and orphanages. The article will discuss the existing data while propose ideas and new implications of these studies and their results. It will also place importance on the alternative model of family in shared spaces like these. Despite the extremely limited bibliography, innovative articles based on innovative ideas might give impetus for further experimenting, study or applications.
Introduction
According to Cacioppo and Hughes’ research, loneliness and depressive symptoms are common and can interact to cause a variety of problems for middle-aged and older persons’ well-being. (2006) This is not surprising because depressed symptoms can have a serious negative impact on both young people’s and older people’s overall physiological well-being. Combining social care for the elderly who reside in nursing homes and small children in nursery homes is an existing concept that is being experimentally applied with very favorable outcomes. This strengthens the argument that nursing and retirement homes and orphanages could work together to substantially enhance the mental and physical health of both populations.
The concept, which appears to be based on a sense of a particularly challenging kind of family bond as well as of crucial communication and motivation, not only has excellent results and implications wherever it has been applied, but it can also be implemented quite easily, without additional funding, giving older people the chance to experience new motivational dynamics and the sense of an extended family. The loneliness experienced by these two groups of population might be resolved more easily than one could imagine. Thus, we will attempt to underscore the data available and offer social workers and other mental health professionals a new suggestion for third-age policy makers, social workers and social politicians.
Loneliness is a universal experience that affects people of all ages more so than younger people, and it can occasionally produce troubling mental symptoms. As the population of the world ages, more and more resources and ideas will be required to ensure the general well-being of senior citizens. The WHO report on global health and aging opens with the following essential questions that are of utmost importance to all social workers and mental health researchers worldwide. The WHO claims that an unusual situation is set to occur whereby there will soon be more elderly people than children and more people who are extremely old. As the world’s senior population grows and the average lifespan increases, significant issues develop.
Discussion
Will population aging be accompanied by a protracted period of good health, a sustained sense of well-being, and extended periods of social involvement and productivity, or will it lead to an increase in sickness, incapacity, and dependency? How will aging affect the expenses of social and health care? Are these possibilities unavoidable, or can we undertake steps to create a physical and social infrastructure that can foster enhanced health and wellbeing as we age? For low-income nations that will age more quickly than their counterparts have, but before they industrialize and become wealthy, how will population aging play out differently? (WHO, 2011) Surprisingly, the welfare states of today do not make a commitment to more sustainable concepts that could radically alter the way millions of people in these circumstances perceive their lives. The unpleasant experience of daily life is exacerbated by loneliness, institutionalization, disability, chronic sickness, and even the psychosomatic component of a lack of motivation. For the application of such ideas, social workers can serve as intermediaries or representatives.
As Dr. Sommers puts it, Intergenerational activities are shown to lift the spirits of residents and are an effective way to respond to loneliness. Regular contact between the same children and residents had a huge positive impact on them. (Sommers, 2019) This may be due to the growing sense of family that these intergenerational gatherings foster even in trying circumstances. In the modern environment, loneliness and a feeling of hopelessness in old age are quite understandable emotions. A sense of resignation or closure typically comes with getting older. This is difficult and has consequences for subsequent acts.
It is common knowledge that older people experience statistically greater health-related challenges. Recent studies on elderly orphans reveal a connection between loneliness and depression, as it is stated. Due to a lack of social connections, this is. It seems that of all the factors, the most crucial one is social contact, which acts as a significant predictor of depressive symptoms. (Adams et al, 2018) Many seniors, for example, felt they had no motivation for life maybe because they could not help or assist socially.
Wu contends that many people do not receive the essential care they need from their own family members. This is a result of the aging population’s dearth of socialization chances. Nearly one-quarter of Americans are thought to experience loneliness. 43% of them cite loneliness as an explanation. The biggest risk factors for elevated blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, a weaker immune system, a sense of helplessness, anxiety, poor cognitive function, an increased chance of Alzheimer’s disease, and mortality, according to study, are social isolation and remoteness. (2020) In an intriguing piece of journalism, Pemberton reports that in 2016, studies showed that approximately 44% of seniors in Canada who had previously been in residential homes had been diagnosed with depression.
Moreover, one in four elderly people with a mental health problem, such as depression or anxiety, whether they live in their own home or in a house for the elderly. Back in 2014 the National Seniors Council concluded that socially isolated seniors were at risk of developing negative health behaviors such as drinking, smoking, not eating well and being sedentary. The report also found that social isolation is a predictor of mortality from coronary disease and stroke, and socially isolated seniors are four to five times more likely to be hospitalized. (Pemberton, 2016) Social separation has been linked to a more or less 50% bigger risk of increasing dementia, a 29% augmented threat of coronary heart disease episodes, and a 32% enlarged menace of stroke. Almost two-thirds of Americans believe that senior centers (64%) and schools and universities (62%) could be creating opportunities for children, youth, and older adults to interrelate. (Wu, 2020) Schokemaker et al conclude that, regarding the loneliness of an aging population, it is crucial to take early measures, especially in terms of policymaking and the field of social care. (2014) Recent research (Thayer & Anderson, 2019) conducted by AARP, shows that more than one quarter of people between 50 and 80 had limited contact with friends and neighbors. Contacts for them were taking place almost once a week or even less. (2018)
The challenging life of orphans
Childhood is a human phase of development in which the mutual emotional bond between the child and his close caregiver has to be present and ongoing for a healthy, mental and social life and future. (Erol et al, 2010) As consequence, orphans are a highly special group of young people who are frequently underprivileged and considerably more likely to experience illnesses linked to various forms of psychopathology. Even for individuals who were raised in well-run institutions, this fact is recognizable.
These children and adolescents living as orphans or in environments that symbolize a specific institution, such as an orphanage, are vulnerable because of the loss of parent figures (Shiferaw et al, 2018). In accordance with this, they may believe that because they lack a human frame of reference, they are unable to recognize their self-dynamics and identity in order for their life objectives and motives to be dynamically involved in the socialization processes or learning capacities. Could this mother or father figure be replaced by a social worker or other mental health specialist?
Professional balances are known to be extremely important in the role of a therapist or social scientist. Therefore, a competent teacher, social worker, psychologist, or mental health scientist who works with them within or outside of the orphanage has a distinct professional identity that is separate to a family role. One of the basic and crucial aspects of these professions’ ethos is to keep all relationships at the level of extreme professionalism in order for the children’s’ independence to occur. Orphans might need a boost of confidence from people with experience who care for them. Therefore, a grandfather’s or grandmother’s figure might allude to a simulation of a family rather than a professional who is taking care of everybody.
A recent survey by comparing and contrasting adolescents in the age group of 15-18 concluded that orphans living in orphanages experience more feelings of loneliness. (Durualp & Cicekoglu, 2013) In 2020, it was found that the importance of clinically significant depressive symptoms in adolescents living in child care homes was found to be elevated in Nepal. (Bhatt et al, 2020) Similar outcomes were found in South West Ethiopia. According to a study the total prevalence of depression among orphans in orphanages was 24.1%. (Shiferaw et al, 2018) Studies also show that the prevalence of runaway behaviors among children in residential care homes is serious and poses a threatening problem for the child’s welfare. Runaways of children from residential care are extremely heterogeneous in nature. The reasons are diverse and might be based on the institution itself, the personality of the child, or his/her social network.
As stated, estimating the commonality of such incidents is a complex procedure, since not every runaway case is appropriately and officially confirmed. (Eritsyan et al, 2017) Another piece of research has shown that a depressive disorder has a statistically significant connection with social support. It was found that orphans with low levels of social support were almost six times more likely to develop depression than orphans with more active social support. (Demoze et al, 2018) This functions as an interesting implication, affirming the need for a human figure that will be attentive enough to make them feel important.
As Shafig et al underscore, orphanhood triggers a variety of mental and emotional problems. Lack of autonomy and inability to make decisions put orphans at a pressing risk of anxiety. The findings of an interesting piece of research published, suggest that there is an invitation to raise consciousness at both public and non-public institutions towards the most critical administrative methodologies and programs for orphans. The study also suggested that children should be well-equipped with life skills education like stress administration, coping ability management, problem-solving abilities, and decision-making skills. (Shafiq et al, 2020) All of these abilities would lead to the independence needed for every personality to acquire a certain amount of independence.
It goes beyond the mere assumption that loneliness is exacerbated by social isolation, though. It’s interesting to observe the estimation of the COVID-19 crises’ new generation of orphans. Over 40,000 children in the US have lost at least one parent to the illness. Some of them had both of their parents pass away. According to Kidman et al, the outcomes might not be favorable. In these situations, anxiety, despair, a sense of helplessness, and lack of financial security may be palpable. (Kidman et al, 2021)
The roots
This chapter attempts to generate further recommendations on the idea based on available information using a sparse bibliography. In 1976, Masaharu Shimada integrated a kindergarten and a nursing home in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, under one roof. Intergenerational settings for older and younger children now exist in Japan and Canada, thanks to the simultaneous introduction of this idea in North America (The Atlantic, 2016). In England, UK, an exceptionally fascinating program that produced exceptional outcomes in the area of institutionalized intergenerational contact took place. The program, as it is known, aimed to improve the intergenerational interactions between a care facility for senior people and the school’s nursery students. On-site testing of the activities was done. As it is a challenging experiment to apply, Nightingale House’s huge old population made it the appropriate location for this research. The more elderly people there were, the more conclusions could be extracted from the study. One of the main goals of the study was to observe the relationships between the residents and the young children in person.
The daily schedule was as follows: From Monday to Friday, there were a variety of intergenerational activities, such as cooking, theater therapy, and exercise. The primary motivation behind these was the sense of community and working as a team to strive to grow closer. Both the residents and the children benefited, and as the study suggested, it felt like an organism quite distinct from the one in school with a teacher-student interaction. The distinctions were obvious. The entire procedure was intellectually advantageous in addition to helping elderly people with depression. Another really intriguing detail from the trial was revealed. The senior residents displayed some degree of knowledge recall from their own educational experiences, making the task of interaction even better. Additionally, it prevented the elderly from sensing or concentrating on their aches and pains. In conclusion, the specific experimental approach revealed that intergenerational interactions and the entire process of socialization for both young people and seniors had an impact on both groups’ overall welfare.
Therefore, the use of face-to-face contact along with an activity schedule may serve as advice for any future research with these two age groups, particularly if both are orphans who belong to groups with social disadvantages. As Dr. Sommers agrees, intergenerational activities show that they act as spirit lifters and make the elderly feel less lonely. Additionally, she affirms that regular contact among the same children and residents had the greatest impact on residents. (Sommers, 2019) This definitely has implications for the new family model.
An intriguing story about the advantages of interaction between the senior residents of a retirement community and a nursery facility for very young children in Seattle was published in 2017 by The Guardian. The trial was conducted at the elderly home’s newly opened nursery at Seattle’s intergenerational center. This incredibly difficult concept, both architecturally and socially, provides greater insight into the aforementioned situation. The director of UAA, Stephen Burke, argues in the piece that the elderly face discrimination in today’s society. Bringing generations together could even help combat the loneliness seen in nursing homes. (2017)
According to the official findings of this specific investigation, “residents of Bristol-based St Monica Trust were found to have improved mood, mobility, and memory after spending six weeks with children.” 2017 (Sheppard)What can be done under these circumstances, though, is the issue that naturally emerges. How could a model that could be widely used on a worldwide basis be useful, particularly in these difficult times of isolation for the elderly?
Conclusions-Proposals
Philosophically, humans are social beings. The profession of a social worker or a social policy maker, includes the term “social” as part of the professional experience and orientation. Being isolated or under conditions that resemble different kinds of marginalization is not beneficial. By generating family simulation implications, bridging the gaps between these two distinct populations of individuals, namely children and elderly people, may revolutionize human interactions. By respecting the age range, taking into account all the data above regarding the positive aspects of contact—properties that are demonstrated for both younger and older ages—seems to increase positive awareness of the age range and pave the way for another social work policy perspective. The informal “adoption” of orphans, which entails daily or weekly interaction between the younger children and the older ones with or without the requirement of merging, will begin. In addition, if this new family paradigm spreads, it will put an end to the stigmatization of institutions like orphanages and nursing homes. Common areas could be utilized as a contact point. These areas might be used for open-air gymnastics or gardens.
These kinds of family models may face a variety of challenges, many of which can only be overcome under the expert scientific direction of social workers, medical/environmental social workers, and mental health specialists. It might also serve as the starting point for more research on issues like dementia. In the event that no family becomes available or interested in adopting them, children up to the age of 18 would have a point of reference, which would be a lifeline for them.
Although there are a number of drawbacks, including funding, as experts in the Guardian explain, the advantages would undoubtedly outweigh the drawbacks, resulting in high-quality institutionalized care for all those who experience loneliness. It is evident that social workers and other mental health professionals play a crucial role in this situation, and that position should continue to evolve. This concept could be applied to various circumstances where a single parent or multiple parents have lost a child and exhibit a number of psychosomatic and psychological symptoms as a result.
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© 2024 Konstantina Kontopoulou
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