Designing Interventions to Reduce Elderly Isolation
Team Members: Corine Britto, Sujan Das Shrestha, Helen Hu, Anukriti Kedia, Eugenia Perez Matheus & Shariwa Sharada
The Spatio-Temporal Matrix
For assignment 4 we were tasked with filling the spatio-temporal matrix with different horizons of time to consider. Similarly to the MLP this included the consideration of large historical events, trends or problems that contributed to problems. We were also encouraged to understand the root causes of the problem, how it began and understanding the effects of everyday life that may have also contributed to the problem. By grasping these concepts of the past, present and future it served as a precursor to further brainstorm on the interventions for assignment #5.
As an acupuncturist might pinpoint strategic points of intervention, we examined the issue of elderly isolation, and narrowed into three areas of focus: (1) public perceptions of an attitudes toward to the elderly, (2) value-based exchange between the elderly and the young (e.g. wisdom, advice, technical skills, conversation), and (3) autonomy and influence of the elderly over their own lives and communities.
Intervention 1: Media Campaign
The media campaign is meant to establish a concept of empathy and a redefinition of ageing as something that is aspirational as well as positive. Elder age is a way of life and not something that is meant to be feared. Through the implementation of a media campaign throughout different platforms this message is meant to inspire intergenerational understanding and an excitement towards interdependence and compassion.
1.How does this project connect to and amplify the others?
The media campaign connects to intervention 2 which is an intergenerational buddy program as well as intervention 3 which is self-organization that leads to a new way of life. The media campaign serves as a starting point to begin to carry the message about positive aging. It presents alternative lifestyles for the elderly and the perception of these lifestyles. The campaign serves as an intervention that creates the bridge for the transition from small scale to larger scale. The campaign is meant to be inspirational and not prescriptive, it is a way to plant seeds of awareness as to what different concepts of aging may mean.
2. Which of the present-day fears/concerns or hopes/aspirations does the project address?
This media campaign sheds light on elder isolation and makes it a transparent issue where people become aware. This campaign is meant to normalize the idea of asking for help for both family members as well as elder members. Interdependence is one of the key messages of the campaign as well as self-sufficiency and self-care. The hope is that all of the messages open up an intergenerational dialogue where mutual understanding, compassion and care is interwoven.
3. What are the barriers and challenges to implementing the project? What new resources, skills technologies, policies or changes in infrastructure will it require?
There are several different barriers and challenges in regards to implementing this project. The main one is that there is not a financial or profit incentive to get major companies funding and supporting the campaign. This may reduce the amount of reach the campaign has and the different platforms that it may be presented in. The campaign requires design skills and technical expertise in regards to print and digital media in order to be launched. It is also important to note that not everyone will value the importance of this and back it up.
Another challenge is defining the messaging of the campaign. Who gets to decide what positive ageing is and what are the nuances that it entails? How can we as designers encourage a behavioral nudge or begin to plant seeds of awareness and excitement in regards to elder isolation? The campaign must not come out as prescriptive but as inspirational. It is important to not cross the line or else it could have the opposite effect and not encourage collaboration between the generations.
4. What under-utilized social resources might be leveraged to aid in implementing the project?
This intervention encourages the use of elder wisdom and oral storytelling traditions in order for the elder to continue to have a sense of belonging within their lives and communities. The elder’s educational resources may be utilized post-retirement and they can be tutors for after school programs or social programs that highlight their talents to children. The children then go on to make the designs that work towards highlighting the positives of aging. This becomes a cycle of interdependence where both children are giving back by instilling hope for the elderly and the elderly are utilizing their knowledge base to continue to give back. The elder can also be compensated through government advocacy programs and this advocacy can be made visible through multiple media such as instagram hashtags, bus stops, coffee sleeves as well as graphics.
5. How will it shift attitudes and beliefs connected to the problem that might lead to new social norms?
Through lower levels of change in the fashion layer ageing can be made visible through the different media platforms that it will be presented in. By creating awareness and shifting perceptions the attitudes against ageing may slowly turn into excitement towards ageing. The idea behind a campaign is to increase visibility for younger generations to have a different idea of the capacities and contributions that the older generations have in society. It is also meant to inspire your vision of your future self within the faces of the elder.
6. In what ways can it positively impact/resolve other complex problems? In what ways will it help restore local and regional social and environmental systems?
The concept of beauty today is limited to an age-range becoming problematic by contributing to social isolation. Therefore by changing the perception of youth and beauty and extending it into the elder life course more sustainable practices of collaboration can begin to emerge. For example, new jobs for the elder may arise and may even have the opportunity to engage in different fields post-retirement. It is time to bring back the elders at the center of the population and prioritizing their needs. By injecting their contributions back into society different generations will be able to receive extensive knowledge and skills in different areas.
Intervention 2: Inter-gen Buddy Program
The intergenerational buddy program is a mentorship program that would allow for exchange of knowledge and skills between the different generations. Allowing for the young to learn from the seniors as well as the seniors to learn from the youth, this program would leverage their existing wisdom and skills to embed and amplify the idea of collaboration and partnership between them.
1.How does this project connect to and amplify the others?
We imagine this second intervention to emerge as a by-product of intervention 1; the media campaign which supports stories of intergenerational collaborations. It also further amplifies the intervention 3, as it aims to increase skills and knowledge which builds stronger resources and more confidence within individuals which will eventually be required for a self organising group to emerge. The program allows people to connect with people beyond their immediate age-based demographics and supports thoughts of collaboration and the mindset of ‘everyone has something to give and share.’ We believe that only when these thought processes are flourished can they become key to unlocking our future vision of communal living, seeded in the large scale understanding of one another.
2. Which of the present-day fears/concerns or hopes/aspirations does the project address?
Inter-gen buddy programs aims to diminish fears of intergenerational competition and the fear of the elderly to be rendered invaluable post retirement. It supports the hope of the seniors to remain purposeful in the society and also gives them an opportunity to aspire for continual growth and learning. It also aims to creates a sense of belonging within the society and to create connections and empathy links between generations.
3.What are the barriers and challenges to implementing the project? What new resources, skills technologies, policies or changes in infrastructure will it require?
The biggest barriers to the implementation of this project can possibly be time and motivation and continued engagement amongst the younger generations. Possibly space to meet and accessible transportation to commute to each other can pose a problem as well. To begin with, the project can leverage policy changes around dedicated time for the community and will require place based ICT technologies which can provide a platform to connect. Further to this, it is critical to build out accessible public transportation which remove barriers of commute.
4.What under-utilized social resources might be leveraged to aid in implementing the project?
The project is based on the central belief that every human is a social resource with knowledge and skill to share, irrespective of their professional career.. In particular it utilises the elderly wisdom and their life experiences and skills. It amplifies the idea of generativity and provides opportunities to pass this knowledge on. Through a two way sharing model, it also builds the impetus of teaching on the youth as well, to amplify responsibility and build an equal sharing and participatory cycle.
5.How will it shift attitudes and beliefs connected to the problem that might lead to new social norms?
Retirement puts the seniors in a category of society where they are considered unproductive. Giving an opportunity to engage with younger and to impart their skills and knowledge, the project aims to actively change this view and build a mindset which changes this sedentary view to a more active and valuable one.
The traditional sharing and learning of knowledge is youth centred and puts the locus at schools and other educational institutions Through a model like this, the mindset shifts from top down imparting and receiving of knowledge to a people centred approach.
It also aims to shift and challenge the efficiency mindset where people are defined by their productivity to one that appreciates their lived experiences, knowledge and external skills.
It also tries to build a new social norm around volunteering, to shift it to a responsibility based model, where it doesn’t require extensive efforts but rather small acts of acting towards to community.
6.In what ways can it positively impact/resolve other complex problems? In what ways will it help restore local and regional social and environmental systems?
To resolve any of the other systemic and complex problems, we need to start with building better collaboration modules between individuals. This format allows to build resilient communities that have the power to organise and eventually resolve other problems. By moving beyond the efficiency mindset, it promotes a healthier way of living that values domestic knowledge and life skills in our capitalist environments.
It also proposes to restore a local and traditional sense of belonging that builds the foundation for benefits for living and collaborating together.
Intervention 3: Self-Organization
Throughout history, as is validated by the MLP, we see that the people have always been subjects to new and existing cultural norms that exist in the landscape level or merely followed the regulations more so have been in a position with more at stake but less say in it. This project is proposed as an entity that grows out from the community organically, dependent on the community members and the designers being able to build consensus in the previous two interventions. It is primarily aimed to establish agency among people and become a pivotal stakeholder in relation to state and market forces. It would empower citizens to have agency over their futures.
1.How does this project connect to and amplify others?
The interventions outlined work in tandem with each other and build successively on the preceding one. While the previous projects have been directly geared towards actively altering attributes of the society or directly advocating for a change in mindset, this intervention is directed more towards establishing a legitimate entity that would then conduct future interventions or projects based on their needs and aspirations. It allows people to think about their rights as well as their responsibilities. The previous interventions focused on building interdependency while this would use it to create a sense of trust to self-organize as well.
2. Which of the present-day fears/concerns or hopes/aspirations does the project address?
The intervention becomes a realization that people can work together for the common good addressing a notion that has prevailed in the past of individualization. It further advocates and sustains values such as interdependence and cooperation. As has been the hope in the previous interventions, it will engage the multi-generational dialogue and notions of a more holistic approach that would enable the elderly to retain and even build their self-esteem.
3. What are the barriers and challenges in implementing the project? What new resources, skills technologies, policies or changes in infrastructure will it require?
A definitive challenge to this proposal is the time taken by the community or the people to realize the importance of collective effort and the need to formalize it to gain agency. It cannot be enforced but even though it might take up a long time to realize, the process itself will have educated the mass which is preferable. However, it is under the assumption that the elderly would desire to be part of such an entity.
A space to convene is also of the essence for such collectives. Depending on the neighborhood, how urban or rural the region is, attaining space to congregate could be a challenge. In such cases, however, physical-social infrastructures such cafes or moose lounges can be utilized.
A potential challenge to such a project is the route it can possibly take in the future. Although it is an entity that stemmed from a imbalance in power relations between elders and the rest, in general, chances are it could be highly politicized. It would be up to the members and representatives of different age-groups to maintain its route.
4.What under-utilized social resources might be leveraged to aid in implementing the project?
Practical knowledge based on experience and skill pertinent to different age-groups would be the biggest social resource that this project is able to leverage. It would help to establish a culture where aging and the role of a elder in the society is valued but also new knowledge and skill is actively shared among the people. New interventions that spring out of discussions within this entity can benefit from the elder’s knowledge as well as the skills and knowledge held by the current younger generation. It would seem natural for the newer generations to work collectively as they would have seen their elders do the same, building in a positive feedback loop in the system.
5. How will it shift attitudes and beliefs connected to the problem that might lead to new social norms?
As mentioned earlier, the three interventions work as a cyclical process where reform of attitudes and beliefs as well as building consensus are innate to the process. The third stage in the process and this intervention will have been attained only through a change in mindset. However, with the multi-generational interaction and citizens involved, the self-organized and aware entity will be more proactive to deal with other state or market forces. It would empower citizens, regardless of age to engage in dialogue and shape what happens in their backyard, neighborhood, district and potentially work with neighboring entities building an even stronger voice.
6. In what ways can it positively impact/ resolve other complex problems? In what ways will it help restore local and regional social and environmental systems?
With such entities in place, people will have developed the agency to author their environment in a way that works best for the common good. An issue that seems to dwell around elderly isolation has been the lack of proper housing infrastructure. Decisions can be made collectively to change how people live together and opting for a co-housing lifestyle, which in Zurich has been able to grow from very bottom-up initiatives to a significant sector in the mainstream market. As a product of this entity such as communal living, it could steer to tackle unaffordable housing and vacancy in neighborhoods. As a common voice, the people can potentially grow to direct markets to adopt more ecologically sustainable practices. For example, neighborhoods can opt to establish or buy food and produce from ecologically-responsible farms or community gardens.
Why are our interventions are needed?
These interventions can be used as leverage points to create the future scenarios we developed. Currently a negative mindset towards aging, lack of intergenerational connection and lack of agency all contribute to social isolation. As people enter retirement, they lose a sense of purpose and become withdrawn which leads to increased isolation. By addressing these issues, the self esteem of older adults would improve. This would empower older adults to participate more in society. It would also affect the way society interacts with older adults. Over time, society would be value the inherit wisdom and experience of older adults hopefully leading to more integration into communities. This would result in a future state shown in assignment #3 where elders have a greater role in society, reducing isolation.
Diagram for 3 interventions
Our Process
Based on the previous exercises as well as study, it became pretty evident that new interventions could potentially grow to become a dominant landscape element and subsequently affect the regime. With this in mind, our observation from the Multi-Level Perspective Chart clearly outlined that new problems would surface in the future.
We worked on both the Spatio-Temporal Matrix, as well as the Transition Design Project canvas, simultaneously, as it helped us relate our projects to each other but also in relation to the different dimensions they could exist in and potentially affect. Thinking of these exercises alongside each other, it helped us formulate our interventions as instances but yet part of a larger system that is organic and would become a cyclical process.
We created a map of various services which could empower the elderly, these early ideas included tiffin services, where and older adult cooks for you, to holisitic health care programs.
The most important observation of this exercise was that many of these services were trying to solve problems for the elderly but not with them. This approach did not consider that older adults understood their needs better than anyone else. We decided at one of our interventions should allow older adults to self organize. The goal of this organization could be for resources or common interests.
Common themes for our preferred future were redefinition of family, life expectations, and empowerment. We made a list of underlying mindsets behind the factors in out MLP and mapped them on the three horizons timeline
Reflections
On Socio-Temporal Matrix:
We felt while a part of our efforts went into finishing up the socio-temporal matrix, we felt it was more or less a reestablishment of the work we had already done over the past few weeks.We found the three horizon mapping tool that we had used for our visioning assignment particularly helpful when it came to mapping the matrix, since it already allowed us to establish past and future mindsets as well as to think of interim level practices. As discussed in our last class we do believe that the matrix can be swapped with the horizon mapping, but it was an interesting opportunity to see all our work map into a cumulative whole.
Designers shouldn’t prescribe:
A large part of our conversation as a group have been around our roles as designers in complex systems. We have been debating aspects of how much does one prescribe and how much does one empower the communities with. Our final intervention for self-organisation emerged as a part of this discussion, in a way to support those affected and empower them to advocate for their needs in ways that best align to their needs. This shift builds on the role of transition designers, as catalysts for change and not experts that prescribe solutions.
Designers can facilitate and inspire:
Rather than prescribe solutions, designers may consider servings as facilitators or sources of inspiration or providing visibility to historical events or analogies. Designers may provide frameworks for thinking that help communities see a more holistic picture, so that they might make more informed decisions for themselves. Our first and third solution put the designer in more of a facilitating role, allowing communities to ultimately decide for themselves.
Interventions that work with one another:
We found the constraint of making sure that the interventions amplified one another to be particularly interesting. This helped us flesh our ideas out more and look at it from the lens of connecting different points of interventions rather than a siloed approach that we take in traditional design processes. Given this, we imagined our interventions to build on one another in a way that each step added to a small shift in mindset to eventually, slowly and steadily transition to our future vision of communal living.
Interventions may exacerbate other problems:
Self-organized communities may open opportunities for corruption and power abuse. Collaborative communities open opportunities for “tragedy of the commons” scenarios, which places economic output in a downward spiral. A look at historical revolutions and the overthrowing of power, and the trial and error of different types of governments have shown that great change (even if towards a more preferred future) often begins with great suffering for the working class. Perhaps one way of moving forward with our interventions is performing tests or pilots at small scales, and gradually expanding iteratively.
Systems interventions need time:
Another important learning for us from the entire process is to expand our sense of time, not just in terms of future visions and past transitions, but also to think of expanded sense of the present. While all our interventions are imagined in the present, we recognise that we need to build these on top of one another, rather than three distinct that can immediately work simultaneously. While that is the goal, it needs a compounded process to begin with.
