Two nursing students from North Bay's Nipissing University have spent the last four months in the Goderich area, working on an Intergenerational Living Model to help seniors.
Gwen Devereaux of Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health explains the nurses identified loneliness as a serious problem for seniors, so Lori Sneddon and Kelley Nedza used a model from the Netherlands to study the potential of having students live with seniors in a retirement community.
The nursing students get free room and board and in return are companions to the seniors, help them with household chores, computers, transportation and recreational outings.
Devereaux says the seniors and students developed a wonderful relationship and the students now have a model they believe could be implemented anywhere in Ontario.