A place for intimacy in elderly care

Abstract

Intimacy is important for every human being. It contributes to our social contacts, physical health and quality of life. Intimacy also plays an important role in the lives of elderly, despite certain prejudices. Nevertheless, there is often a lack of attention for intimacy in elderly care. This graduation project therefore aims to give intimacy a place in elderly care. During this project, a literature study and interviews with professionals are conducted to explore the current state of knowledge. An additional user research with resident in elderly care is done to explore the user needs. Multiple design directions are explored with creative sessions, quick prototyping and user testing. A final design is created based on all the collected insights, which is evaluated with care givers and residents. Intimacy is defined as a social interaction between two persons, which creates a reciprocal feeling of connectedness. It consists of intimate behavior and intimate experiences, that can take place with different intimate relationships. Intimacy is a broad concept and very personal, since everyone has different needs and desires. Care givers in elderly care are often unaware of the importance of intimacy for residents. Intimacy is barely discussed and care givers do not act on it considerately. Due to a lack of education about intimacy in elderly care, care givers find it hard to handle intimate needs and desires. Discussing intimacy is also challenging since it is a personal and sensitive topic. The goal of this project is to create awareness about positive intimacy for residents in elderly care, and to provide care givers with a conversation starter, by designing a small moment of intimacy in public that is active and light-hearted. Creating awareness about the existence and importance of intimacy is the first step in making a change in the behavior of the elderly care context. A Bed of Roses, or in Dutch ‘Onder de Wol’, is the final design of this project. The design is a humorous and intimate photobooth of a vertical bed, in which residents can take a photograph with their partner, family, friends or care givers. This photograph is then printed and can be used as a conversation starter in combination with a booklet. This booklet contains introductory questions and illustrations about different types of intimacy. Care givers can use to booklet to initiate a conversation with residents. The photographs from the photobooth are also largely printed and displayed in a public photo exposition in the residency. The final design is tested with residents and evaluted with care givers, who all react positively and enthusiastically. Intimacy can not be forced, but a small moment of intimacy can be stimulated with a light-hearted activity, such as A Bed of Roses. The final design brings a joyful and intimate moment to the residents with the photobooth, provides care givers with the booklet that gives them confidence for a conversation and creates awareness about intimacy in elderly care with the photo exposition.