Homesharing among students and seniors - a promising contribution to elder's satisfying experience of ageing in place?
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2018-08-28
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en
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Abstract
Staying at home in old age (“ageing in place”, see Sixsmith & Sixsmith, 2008) is generally
considered as a possibility for elders to keep up their independence and autonomy and
simultaneously not losing contact to existing social networks such as friends or family.
There are, however, indications that remaining living at home in old age may involve
various challenges, such as isolation. As a possible way to overcome these issues some
scientists have referred to the concept of intergenerational homesharing among seniors
and students (see Altus & Mathews, 2000). This housing form’s underlying idea is that
pensioners offer affordable housing to students and in return receive companionship and
assistance with daily tasks.
This study investigated “to what extent the German homesharing program “Wohnen für
Hilfe” provides a promising contribution to seniors’ satisfying experience of ageing in
place”. It has been revealed that WfH does provide a promising contribution, however, as
the program is at present generally facing low numbers of homeshare pairs, only few
seniors can benefit from that. In order to change this, the current challenges of the
program need to be
tackled, whereby it should above all be concentrated on allaying seniors’ fears to
engage in homesharing.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen