view of a typical senior citizens characteristics and needs

Fictional representative characters, illustrating the broad spectrum of needs of senior citizens

A Tool for Expanding the Circle of Service Providers for Senior

Citizens

The Creation of a New Age

Rinat Ben-Noon PhD Geographer and Social PlannerSkype: Rinat.Ben.Noon [email protected]

Enormous increase in the number of senior citizens as opposed to other age groups

Heterogeneity of senior citizens, and the changing characteristics of people who were born after World War II as to their individual capacities, consumer behavior, leisure habits and their desire for realizing personal goals

The New Age Challenge for the Municipality System

Rinat Ben-Noon PhD Geographer and Social Planner Skype: Rinat.Ben.Noon Tel-054-3361941 [email protected]

The Innovation Challenge: “inventing" and developing new solutions designed for this growing group of residents, which is heterogeneous in terms of age, level of functioning, personal and economic capabilities and which is more diffusely located within the urban space.

The Funding Challenge: finding new economic models that combine the city's resources through its own financing and donations, sale of services and by employing senior citizens themselves to operate services.

The Equality Challenge: helping the more vulnerable groups that are unable to purchase the supply of private service, sports, culture, housing and health.

The Service Challenge: recognizing the new and diverse needs and changing the image of senior citizens while building new services to address these needs.

Rinat Ben-Noon PhD Geographer and Social PlannerSkype: Rinat.Ben.Noon Tel-054-3361941 [email protected]

The service challenge The VisionCreating innovative solutions to new and existing needs, for the variety of senior citizensThe TargetExpanding the circle of service providers for senior citizens beyond to include more than social and health care workers.The MethodPresenting fictional, representative characters to illustrate the broad spectrum of senior citizens


The purpose of building profiles

Addressing a message that senior citizens are a heterogeneous group therefore needing different solutions for different problems .

Inspiring the development of further services.

Promoting senior citizens as a target audience and integrating them in the municipality work plans.


Qualitative Data for Profiles

Based on looking at data from all kinds of field work involving issues such as :Requests from families of dementia patients Public transportation problemsLack of elevators in older buildings Ethnic group considerationsSenior citizens’ discussions about dreams for

self fulfillment

Rinat Ben-Noon PhD Geographer Rinat.Ben.Noon Tel-054-3361941 [email protected]

Shmuel Cohen

(82)

Holocaust survivor, widower Confined

to his home

The couple Radayi

Yaffa (65) and

Nehemiah

( 69 )Born in Holon Tel

Giborim

Etty (67) and

Yoram David (72)

New in Holon

Kiryat Ayalon

Zehava (75) and Hayya (77)

widows, members

of the senior

citizens club

Jesse Cohen

neighborhood.

Avner Menache

m (78) Social

activist

downtownHolon

Julia (60) and her mother

Raya (86)

Immigrants from

the USSR, Kiryat

Sharett

(Shmuel Cohen (82Holocaust survivor, widower. Confined to his home


Shmuel was born in Romania. He survived the holocaust, together with his younger brother.

He immigrated to Israel. As a young man and served in the army and e married Rivka, also a refugee from Romania.

He was employed as a production worker in an industrial firm.

Shmuel was widowed At the age of 77 and two years later he had a small strake. Since then he has been confined to this home.

The fact that he is stuck at home, without any social company and wthout any physical activity has led to a sharp decline n hs physical and mental functioning. It is likely that he will move to an old age home.

The Radayi couple- Yaffa (65) and Nehemiah (69)

Tel Giborim


The Radayi couple- were born to immigrant families in the Tel Giborim neighborhood .

Nehemiah continues to work part time inb the Holon industrial area and Yaffa is currently helping to rear her grandsons.

Yaffa is very active while Nehemiah prefers to stay at home.The couple live very modestly within their means. Yaffa goes

to gym classes at the community center near their home, but Nehemiah, who was an amateur ping pong player in his youth, has not done any sports activates for many years. Yaffa would really be grateful if you could convince Nehemiah to leave the house and participate in some sports activities. She think it would be more attractive for him if he could attend sports classes or activities together with his grandsons or with men in his age . Foe example: Jude or swimming.

Eti (67) and Yoram (72)Newcomers in Holon


The couple, who had lived previously in a rural community in the Galilee, followed their daughter and moved to the neighborhood of Kiryat Elon. Yoram was formally a doctor in Tzfat hospital and Eti was a school principal in one of the regional schools.

Until recently, the couple had been living well and used to go abroad. They enjoyed the proximity of their neighborhood to Tel Aviv where they could partake in different cultural activities. They also used to look after their grandchildren in the afternoons.

Lately there has been a sharp decline in Yoram’s mental condition. He tends to forget a lot, and is often irritable and nervous. Eti refuses to accept the fact that her husband has dementia.

Their children feel powerless about their father’s deterioration and are confused about their mother’s refusal to accept the new situation.

Julia (60) and her mother Raya Luvensky (86) Kiryat Neighborhood Sharett East


Julia immigrated to Israel from Belarus in 1990. Since then, she has raised her two sons, relying also on the assistance of her mother, Raya.

She works at a bank in Tel Aviv as is eligible for retirement within two years, but is considering her moves. she fears a decrease in her economic level and therefore feels that she should work as long as she can. On the other hand, she desire to rediscover that artistic side of herself, that was part of her life, before she migrated to Israel.

Since Raya`s grandchildren grow up, she has felt that her eyesight has been failing. She also feels a deterioration in her level of understanding, so is much less mobile than before. so now she spends most of her time at home, or just sitting on the bench on the street.

view of a typical senior citizens characteristics and needs

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