4.3. Intergenerational Care Business Model

A potential way to help providers realize cost savings is having many types of dependent care services in a single facility (i.e., provision of care to children, the elderly and adults with disabilities). Under this model, providers can benefit from coordination and consolidation of services, similar to the formation of shared services alliances/networks, and share some of the operational costs of running a dependent care facility (See section 4.1.). Such facilities are usually called “intergenerational shared sites” or “intergenerational learning and care centers,” and are great assets to working parents who have to care for both young children and elderly parents, also known as the Sandwich Generation [178].

Delivering intergenerational programs in one location is also attractive because of anticipated cost savings. Both aged care and childcare organizations can decrease total running costs by sharing resources such as skilled labor, learning materials, and buildings. Our preliminary workforce interview findings suggest intergenerational care is a career path that interests staff. It also suggests creating a training qualification to enable this career path may address workforce shortages in both child care and aged care [179].

There are also several studies that outline the benefits of intergenerational interactions for both older adults and children, including decreased loneliness, delayed mental decay and reduced risk of disease and death in the elderly [180]. Children, in turn, tend to display a reduced bias against older adults and greater sensitivity to persons with disabilities [181].

It is important to keep in mind that many individuals who need adult day services have dementia. For this reason, intergenerational care workers would need to have specific training tailored to the needs of those clients, so they can understand the disease process and how it affects the brain and other functions as well as communication techniques. Specialized training could be offered by West Virginia higher education institutions, in collaboration with dementia care specialists who offers such knowledge and training, as part of the curriculum for those in health professions or related programs, which would give them a more diverse education. Additionally, in some states, universities offer adult day programs/services on campus for faculty and staff as well as community members who are familial caregivers. Many of the staff hired or utilized by such programs include students majoring in health-related fields. Correspondingly, intergenerational care staff would also need to meet training requirements for child care workers.

In the case of West Virginia, intergenerational care may provide new and innovative revenue-generating and employment opportunities to residents [182]. Taking advantage of the fact that West Virginia has the highest rate of homeownership in the country, rural homeowners could generate income by opening an intergenerational home care facility [183]. Rural areas tend to have larger homes that are inadequate for the smaller families of today, especially because they are more expensive to maintain, but they usually provide adequate space for both a child care facility and an adult day facility.

There is also an opportunity for West Virginia University, in collaboration with WVU Extension Offices throughout the state, to carry out an economic feasibility study of intergenerational home care facilities of different sizes. This project would be similar to the research conducted by three land grant institutions that established The Glenwood, an intergenerational care facility in Bridgewater, a small rural community in Vermont [184]. The results of the study indicate that the larger the intergenerational home care facility, the greater the potential for profitability, even with reduced occupancy (under this model, providers were able to break even with less than 50 percent occupancy). West Virginia could benefit from a study that would look into the viability of opening such facilities throughout the state.

In-country examples of successful intergenerational care models include Menorah Park (MP) in Beachwood, Ohio and The Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City (The J KC) in Overland Park, Kansas, both 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. Although the main missions of MP and The J KC are not to provide intergenerational care, MP offers intergenerational programs and activities and both facilities provide co-located child care, senior care and other community services [185]. What seems to make the MP and The J KC business models work is that both facilities are located in large urban areas (i.e., with high demand for dependent care services) and both provide an array of community services (i.e., they have several revenue generating sources, which help to offset some of the operational costs of running a dependent care facility). In West Virginia, for instance, similar models could be tested in Charleston, Morgantown and the Eastern Panhandle, in partnership with local community services organizations and potentially funded by local foundations. A comprehensive guide on how providers could go about opening an intergenerational care facility, including funding sources, available grants, facility design and building, special training for dependent care workers [186], curriculum planning, a step-by-step checklist and much more can be found in a footnote [187].