News
Residents have praised a care home for giving them “hope” after it introduced a new initiative to tackle loneliness.
Every Tuesday, Lavender Hills Care Home in Ramsbottom allows members from a local baby and toddler group in so the residents can interactive with the children as part of a intergenerational mixing plan.
Talking Generations is a campaign which aims to build meaningful connections across generations by running a variety of sessions across the country.
Larraine Singleton, 82, who lives at Lavender Hills, said: “It was wonderful. I felt as if I had young children again.”
“It’s lovely to see all these children dancing around with their parents and I just thought today, if this carries on, we’ll be alright as a country.”
Another resident, Rita Wilson, said: “With the children it’s lovely and the little toddlers are wonderful.”
“This is what they need, the children, they need to be mixing with different people all the time so they get used to it.” she added.
Talking Generations is a collaborative campaign between the organisations Intergenerational England and Intergenerational Music Making.
Emily Abott, who runs the campaign, said: “We’re working to try and replace the value on intergenerational relationships.
“As a country we’re quite age-segregated, we don’t necessarily build these strong relationships with people across different generations.
” So, we believe that it’s really important to create space to harness those relationships,” she added.
Sue Nicholls attends the weekly sessions with her grandson Francis.
Ms Nicholls said: “We love it, Francis loves coming singing and they’re all so friendly and happy to see us each week.
“It gets them to meet the older generation and share their love and kindness with us.”
