An Amsterdam Long Term Care Facility Has Some Unique Residents

“You have to try to throw a white ping pong ball into the beer, and then you have to drink it,” Annie Middelburg explains about the ‘beer pong’ drinking game she’s just learnt.

She’s 84… but she says that things are lot more fun when she’s spending time with youngsters like 22-year-old Jurrien Mentink.

He’s one of six students who live rent free at the Humanitas aged care home in Deventer near Amsterdam. In return, they agree to spend at least 30 hours a month socializing with the older residents.

“Students struggle to find housing in the Netherlands, especially in big cities,” Jurrien tells Dateline's Aaron Lewis. “I pay nothing to live here.”

Gea Sijpkes wants to provide more than just healthcare in her aged care home in Holland, she wants the residents to find excitement and a smile every day. She’s achieved that by letting students live there too.
Amsterdam was short of 9,000 student rooms in 2014 alone, while two years earlier, the Dutch government cut care funding for people over 80.

Those two shortages prompted Humanitas to come up with this cheap way of providing better care, and company, for their residents.

“I think that the students influence the whole tone of the conversation here,” CEO Gea Sijpkes explains on the thinking behind her idea. “So that it’s not only about death, sickness and old age, but also about youth, about parties, about girlfriends.”

Watch the video below to learn more about this unique arrangement or to read the origional SBS Article, Click Here