Margharita Solon of Nás na Riogh Housing Association speaks about her involvement with Bealtaine and the EnvisAge project
I’m a nurse, but I’ve given up nursing to volunteer full-time on a project that absolutely consumes me. This project (Nás na Riogh Housing Association’s development McAuley Place) is providing sheltered housing in Naas, with intergenerational facilities, and a range of opportunities for older people to integrate with the wider community. It is not just about housing for the older person – our vision is to bring our elders to the heart of a vibrant community.
I qualified in oncology in London, but after I got married, I began working in a geriatric unit for convenience and discovered I simply loved it. The residents became like family to me and what I got from them, no money could pay for. Leaving work each day, the place that had become their home did not seem to me like a home at all. This was in the back of my mind all the time.
I live in a housing estate, and one of the things I love about it is the broad range of ages of the residents. Across the road from my home lived a retired couple who had no family. My husband and I have three children. The mutual benefits and the blessings of our friendship couldn’t be overstated. Paddy and Essie were both educated to primary school level, but they had the university of life’s experiences, and our lives were hugely enhanced by our relationship with them.
You do not get old by being with older people. I visit an 89 year old nun a few times a week. I tell her that for me, going into to visit her is like plugging a phone into a charger. She charges my batteries so I’m ready to go off again. I get far more from being with older people than I give. I have this thing about older persons in care generally: even though they are supposed to be in a home, they are not actually at home. When my neighbor Paddy had a profound stroke, he had to go from Naas town to a public nursing home. It was a great facility, but it was forty miles away from the house and his wife could not drive. So she was totally isolated and he was out of place. He knew nobody there. I thought, if Paddy rehabilitates and comes back, suppose he can’t manage the stairs in his house – we have nowhere for him to be. Then, all the lights came on in my mind. I realised that it could be me and my husband. It could be us. I got a really strong sense of ‘you can do it now, you’re young enough, but when you get to that stage, it will be too late’.
EnvisAge
So many things in life are not by chance. I believe that I was meant to be at EnvisAge. I had searched online for a multicultural music event for my daughter, trawling through event listings in cities and towns across the country, looking for Nepalese music. I happened upon this EnvisAge project, and from the description, thought it just might have something of interest for me. I contacted Bealtaine and found there was an open door. I wasn’t sure what I would be doing there, except that I would be trying to envisage what type of accommodation, lifestyle or experiences I might have as an older person. I wanted to discover what was available and to add my own bit to the discussion. Organised by Mayo Arts, it was using the arts as its medium, something totally new to me. That was also an attraction.
The gathering took place at a complex on its own grounds in Castlebar. It almost resembled a retreat centre; you could immerse yourself in it. Being held over three days meant that there really was time to listen to other people, to probe opinions and think about them, to put them into the melting pot of your own feelings and thoughts. You could challenge and be challenged in your own notions, and share ideas you had, see things you hadn’t thought about at all, maybe come away re-focused, and tweaking the directions that you had intended travelling. A really beneficial element it offered was art. Using that medium was totally new to me. The fact that many others from non-artistic disciplines were also present was helpful to me, as was the knowledge that all in the group were interested in some way in the older person. Together, all these things made it a magical experience for me.
I’ve been to a residential setting in Meadowlark Hill, in Kansas, spearheaded by an incredible man called Steve Shields, a teacher of leadership in long-term care. He’s bringing in the household model as opposed to the institutional model. A phrase of his that I’ve adopted is: ‘We can’t have older persons in silos’. This is so true. He co-wrote a book with LaVerne Norton, Culture Change Now which I got at Meadowlark Hills. It was truly amazing to see that the same LaVerne Norton was the facilitator for EnvisAge at Bealtaine last year. Art shouldn’t be in a silo either; it is part of who we are and access to it is a right that we have. Art is a medium which, if we access it, will bring out so much of who we are.
At EnvisAge, art was the medium we used to bring out our ideas. We used spidergrams (simple spider-like diagrams linking words, ideas, tasks, etc. from a central concept) as tools to articulate our thoughts and stimulate discussion. This creative and visual technique enabled us to tap our inner reservoir and draw out ideas that may not easily have found words to carry them. Seeing everyone’s ideas, including your own, laid out as pictures on a page, makes it easier to engage with them for longer and to look at them from all angles. We all could look at each others’ ideas, absorb them in a way that is not the same as using words – a picture does paint a thousand words. There was incredible energy circling around all of that. The communication that art allowed was wonderful. Without words, one could visually understand and develop ideas that way.
EnvisAge was about exploring personal attitudes, understandings, positions; about listening to other points of view and debating and possibly revising opinions. We certainly did all that. It made all of us there consider the social, economic and cultural rights of people within the community, and look at what it is we are doing. For all of us there, there was something we could improve on.
The EnvisAge event highlighted the need for each one of us to look at what is available for older persons now and to envisage what we would like to be available for us in the future. EnvisAge participants realised that the diversity in the group reflected the diversity in communities nationwide. There can’t be a ‘one-size-fits all’ approach to the planning of an aging demographic. The group itself was like a little community, and it was good to explore how the aspirations of individuals within the group could be implemented into planning and health policies for future generations. It was fantastic to be in that position myself, of evaluating what I might want for myself in older age, so that we might enable future residents of our development in Naas to have access to choices for themselves within the wider community.
Research suggests that it is important for communities to draw on their own energies and strengths, and to avoid overdependence on external supports. I passionately believe in that – that we can enhance and strengthen our own communities at local level, and that the Arts could be a huge enabler in this process.
Before attending EnvisAge, I expected that, in some way in what we are developing in Naas, there would be an element of the Arts involved. But because of EnvisAge, and an Arts facilitator there, I got the notion that, really, art should be a right, and that it should be woven all through the fabric of everything that we are doing. It is incredible and wonderful that we have reached that view now while the building blocks are still going up. I would not have believed the power of the Arts to enable people, firstly to communicate, but also to sustain and follow through on connections. I now know the huge potential in what we’re going to do for older persons by utilising the Arts to help integrate the complete project in Naas.
At EnvisAge, I met so many people from different backgrounds and with different interests. It was inspiring and invigorating. It challenged us to come out of our safe areas, our own comfort zones. We might have come in with notions about the hats people were wearing. But preconceived notions get broken down rapidly after spending a day or two together, being out together in the evenings, moving around and talking,. Getting out of the safe areas is very empowering. And I asked myself, ‘Isn’t that what we’re trying to do in our project in Naas for older people?’– trying to allow them to be challenged, to draw out from them things that they are generally not enabled to do. And to help break down preconceived notions older persons may have, or that others may have about older persons.
I would say that personally and for us in Naas, EnvisAge has been and is incredible. Even though it was a one off event for me in Mayo, the contacts I made there continue. It is up to individuals of course, but there is ongoing sharing of ideas and an observing of developments. I still have contact with people I encountered there. I am in contact with relevant people from so many valuable areas: with the HSE because I made a contact there at EnvisAge; with Kildare Arts; with our community arts collaborator Tony Fegan; with Mary Bowen of The Hospice Friendly Hospital Programme, who talk about end of life care in a person’s home, and what we’re developing are persons’ homes; with Hedda from Serendipity; with Simon Roberts from Intel to learn more about the TRIL Centre at Trinity College, and several others now and in the future — all from contacts made at EnvisAge.
NNRHA is developing fifty-two apartments right in the heart of Naas town. It is an integrated inter-generational facility: there’s a community centre; we have the old nuns’ chapel which will become a cultural and artistic space; and we’re establishing a creative health and learning centre there, beside a beautiful garden.
When I recently brought my 80 year old godmother to Portugal, her first time out of Ireland since the 1950s, it was like being with Alice in the gardens of Wonderland. If people say, ‘She can’t’, I say, ‘Why can’t she?’ We perhaps do have a negative sense of ageing – many of us are in denial about the fact that we are growing older. We may have unexplored fears about the possibility of deteriorating health and even of the fact that we will die. What we must do is create an environment that will enable that ageing person to live and enjoy life. To live. My sister’s prayer for our father was that he would live till he died. He did! The challenge in care provision for older persons is to ensure that recipients are enabled to have physical, spiritual, emotional and psychological feelings of well-being — while they are living, ensure they have a good quality of life by not simply caring for them, but also by enabling them.
Financially, that would be far more economical in the long term. To keep an older person in our apartments per week will cost about €80. In a nursing home it is about €1000. If older persons are isolated, either in their own home or in care settings, there is little opportunity for them to share their knowledge and wisdom with the wider community. Memories of previous generations could be lost. If we lock away that, we have lost one of the many incredible gifts they possess and can pass on to us.
To counter that silo effect, our residential development in Naas is in the heart of the community. On a walking frame, or with emphysema, or angina, or waiting for a hip replacement, you are still only five minutes of slow walking from the church, the community centre, the Nun’s Chapel which will be used for music or dance, and – when we get the money for it which will come as it came for the rest – the Learning and Health centre we are developing on the same campus. This will be open to the whole community and will lead out to an incredible garden with a river beside it. So even though mobility may have decreased, the senses are all stimulated and enabled. We have also designed a coffee shop in the sheltered housing complex, which will be open to the whole community, not just the residents. How could you not have a sense of well-being in a place like that!
We have not yet finalised our admission criteria, which will include being aged 65 and over, and able to look after oneself, although a carer coming in would be ok. But it will not be a nursing home. We do need nursing homes, but we also need other choices. Ours is a sheltered housing scheme in the heart of the community with intergenerational facilities and a huge emphasis on the Arts. Priority will be given to people from Naas who have lived there for a certain amount of time – not to discriminate against others, but to positively discriminate for people who have set down networks in the community already. Local people know their neighbors, or shopkeepers, and this immediately brings informal support. That should reduce the need to buy in extra care. Community is vital to this project.
Political will should go beyond economics. When planning our development we were told we have to get value for money. But I say it will never be value for money if we evaluate it as bricks and mortar. If it was appraised considering the future savings that would be made by the Health Service and the enhanced quality of life for older persons, it could be seen to be value for money. The other element worth considering in appraising such a development is does it give people access to the rights laid down in the United Nations Principles for Older Persons. Had we gone for the green-field site as we were encouraged to do, it would be up and running now, but this would have isolated the residents. We were fortunate that we were able to get a site in the heart of the town. This is not always possible. The Sisters of Mercy were huge enablers in this area. It was important for us that the development would be within walking distance of shops and services, such as the hairdressers, pharmacy, library, post office etc. We’ve worked on this from 2000 to 2009 to get funding approval for the development. We had to make the apartments smaller than originally planned. We had to do this to get it off the ground. Would I be prepared to live in it? Yes. It would ‘re-enable’ me to live ‘at home’ in the heart of my community if I could no longer manage in my house. And it would be my personal space.
Our scheme was actually designed ‘for us’, not for notional old people. That’s because we are the old people of the future. Residents must be able to live the life they want, not the kind of life that somebody else might think they want or should want. The Task Force in Active Citizenship says the challenge of the 21st century is to stop, to reflect, and to act beyond the familiar. That’s what we did.
If I’m in sheltered housing in a complex which enables me to interact with all the agencies, that makes me want to get up: Am I going to go downstairs, to the coffee shop, the garden, the culture and health centre for the tai chi classes, or to the active retirement group? Or if not very mobile, will I share the cúpla focal with the students who visit for a chance to practice for their oral Irish exam as I have a bit of Gaeilge? The choices are mine. That notion needs to be exploded into our consciousness. Otherwise we are really incubating people to become dependent and in need of long term care and that is going to cost the state even more. Before I go into a residential care setting, if I live at home (even if home is in a town) and can’t get out, I may require the help of a carer. I might see a wonderful carer from 10-11am today and then nobody until 10am tomorrow. What may happen is that I become afraid to go outside in case I fall, so I’m less active, my joints are seizing up, my muscles are losing tone, I’m getting more depressed. What’s happening? Is my home appropriate to my needs?
Change is happening now. It is more than just ‘catering’ for older persons in residential settings, or in their own homes, or out in the streets; it is about community, all the generations in community together. Though our focus may have ended up being older persons, none of us are in silos. Throughout Ireland changes are taking place, and something like EnvisAge was and can be very empowering for people who are trying to make a difference. The ‘system’ can unintentionally sometimes isolate older people and it can be hard to acknowledge this.
It has been inspiring to see, through these experiences and connections, how much hope there is for us, for our generation as we age. It is immense. I think the ideal is to involve all the generations in building up community. Real change is happening. Art and health are finding new ways of permeating residential care settings and nursing homes. The Leas Cross issue brought about the introduction of the National Advocacy Programme Alliance. It is fantastic to think that each person in a residential care setting will have access to an advocate–someone who will represent their individual their needs and wishes, entailing support from the providers and honoring the rights of the residents.
There’s great hope for us as we age. ‘As we age’ is a great phrase that I heard from Professor Des O’Neill, a geriatrician in St James’s hospital. When you get old are you a geriatric? At the age of 81, my mother would talk about the ‘old’ friend she goes playing bridge with, and suddenly ask, ‘Oh my god! When will I be old?’ I would answer, ‘it is always five years ahead of where you are’.
Age is a continuum, and we are all on that line; you can be old at 50 or 60 depending on physical health, on your environment (how friendly it is to your health situation), and on opportunities available for social inclusion. If you look on it as a horizontal line, a flat line, I say to young people that someone on the further end may well be feeling younger than you are at the moment. I often speak of the fact that I walk on walls! I do this because I want to, and because I believe that if I stop walking on walls, maybe someday I won’t be able to.
I love the fact that this project has started at last and I hope it will continue to evolve and react to the needs of the people at the time. This project has created huge energy, charged batteries, shown other ways of doing things, other potentials and other possibilities. And it has totally revealed to me the value of the Arts as a right for everybody, and what a friend the Arts can be for everybody!
We’ve all been given the gift of life: from wherever we’ve come or believe we’ve come from, we are alive. I think that life is enhanced hugely if we can connect together. I think we all have something to give and receive from each other. It’s people and the connections we make that are important, that make us the richer. Everybody had something to give and everybody has something to receive. I think the project in Naas will enable that. I think EnvisAge really highlighted that.
We have started a Community based Intergenerational Arts Collaborative which will become part of Bealtaine. It involves primary and secondary schools in workshop with older people. It is called Luisne – Dawn’s Light, after the Irish word for the light which comes with dawn and which energises and may shine a new light on everything else.
