The 2 January 2016 NY Times article entitled ‘In school for the sake of keeping the mind stimulated’ describes a program model that would be interesting to analyze from an SRV and PASSING perspective, including elements such as:
- contemporary level of societal devaluation and heightened vulnerability for older, retired people
- multiple role goals (see the SRV monograph by Wolfensberger)
- new societally valued role(s)
- previously held valued role(s)
- access to the ‘good things of life’
- image juxtapositions
- role language
- image enhancement and competency enhancement with an eye toward social roles
- personal social integration and valued social/societal participation
- physical and social settings
- social interactions
- activities
- action on the individual level, and on the level of secondary social systems
- program and activity labels
- financial cost
- model coherency
- etc.
Each of these could be analyzed separately based on the information contained in the article about the program model, and perhaps further research on specific Osher programs. Part of what SRV and PASSING teach is how to look at a service from multiple perspectives, and then also to look at how these combine into an overall impact on people served.