Intergenerational Cooperation Between Elderly Care and Child Protection Residential Care: Opportunities, Risks and Trauma-Informed Professional Conditions

Abstract

The study examines the opportunities, risks and professional conditions of intergenerational cooperation between residential elderly care and child protection residential care. It argues that encounters between older adults living in care homes and young people living in children’s homes or residential care settings cannot be treated as simple charitable events or occasional festive programmes. Such initiatives bring together two vulnerable groups, two different institutional logics and several psychosocial risks. Based on international literature and practical models, intergenerational programmes may offer valuable opportunities, but their effects are not automatic and require particularly careful adaptation in the context of adolescents in child protection residential care, many of whom have experienced trauma, loss or disrupted attachment relationships. The article argues that cooperation between elderly care homes and children’s homes can only be professionally justified if it starts as a low-risk, voluntary, documented, trauma-informed and evaluated pilot programme. The proposed framework emphasises participant preparation, clear boundaries, professional coordination, the right to withdraw, and the evaluation of safety, acceptability and feasibility rather than overstated impact claims.