Meaningful Engagement

The Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI), led by Baycrest, helps innovators develop, disseminate, scale, and promote adoption of promising innovation. This center is located in Ontario, bit does fund some projects outside of that Province. In 2018 they funded a project called “The Zeitgeist Program: Storytelling for Meaningful Engagement”

The researcher, Donna Levi, recognized that social isolation, loneliness and cognitive decline are major concerns for seniors living in long term care facilities. To address these challenges and provide opportunities for intergenerational social exchange and storytelling, her team created Zeitgeist Vancouver, a storytelling project which brings together residents living in long-term care and design students to co-write and co-design publications that highlight residents’ stories.

Through a unique collaboration between Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) and the Health Design Lab at Emily Carr University (ECU), the goal of this project is to develop a new therapeutic recreation (TR) model for engaging residents in meaningful activities to address loneliness and cognitive decline. Through a social innovation approach, this project gives voice to residents, providing opportunities for creative and emotional expression, stimulation of positive memories and the engagement of residents in a unique and meaningful activity. Simultaneously, this project offered design students learning opportunities in communication and participatory design, creating a mutually beneficial intergenerational platform which combines and leverages local assets to enhance existing TR services.

The project was adapted from a project within a care home system in Switzerland, led by designer Carolyn Kerchof, the project was piloted at Purdy Pavilion (a VCH long-term care facility) in Spring of 2018 with 12 residents and 18 students from ECU.

The Zeitgeist program was a 6-week recreation program over 3 months for residents at local long-term care homes. Guided by their professor, university students in a communication design program helped small groups of residents to design and write personal stories and publish them. In total, 34 design students, 31 older adults with some level of cognitive impairment, two clinicians and two support staff participated.

Residents and students benefited from the program. The storytelling format was an excellent way to build connections between generations. Healthcare professionals said residents benefited from engaging with students. Long-term care staff learned more about residents and increased their confidence and ability to improve residents’ quality of life. Students enjoyed the opportunity to apply design skills in a real-world setting.