Designing social circles: A way to help people live well as they age

Submitted by GlimmerGuy on 03/02/2010 – 11:43 amAdd comment

When I was working on Glimmer I had the good fortune of encountering the British designer Hilary Cottam, who has done revolutionary work in terms of trying to rethink social welfare services in the United Kingdom. Through her research and experimentation, Cottam has found that when it comes to providing services for senior citizens, it’s particularly important to make sure seniors have a strong everyday support network of people to help with sometimes-mundane daily problems and tasks. In short, people need a small circle of friends; and if they don’t happen to have one, they may need to have it designed for them.

When Cottam’s design group, Participle, began working with the London-area borough of Southwark, she was told by the local government that the rising demands of Southwark’s aging population had become almost impossible to meet because “there wasn’t enough money in the system to give these people all that they needed.” Cottam’s response was to ask the stupid question: What do they really need?

After a deep dive into Southwark’s senior community, Cottam found that while the government was focused on providing seniors with free car rides for errands or at-home visits from social workers (which were proving quite costly), the seniors really needed something you couldn’t put a price tag on: friendship.

This was important not only in terms of the intrinsic value of friendship, “but also because having friends and acquaintances available can free an older person from worrying about basic chores like changing a light bulb or getting to the store,” Cottam says. It was simple, really: If someone had a few friends to count on, that person wouldn’t have to be so dependent on the government.

Cottam began to devise prototypes of social circles for Southwark’s seniors, with each circle consisting of a half-dozen or more people who lived near one another. The circles were not designed haphazardly; interviews were conducted to assess people’s needs and capabilities, and groups were assembled for compatibility. To encourage people to join, the circle came with benefits (discounts on various services, access to group activities) funded by the government and an outside company that agreed to help sponsor the project.

The Southwark program is still young, but it’s already having a big impact: The buddy networks are helping members deal with health problems, household fixes, transportation, and other everyday needs that previously were overwhelming the government’s capabilities. And in the process, it’s reinforcing one of Cottam’s core beliefs: That through better design, it’s possible to improve and expand social services without spending more money.

There’s also an important lesson here for a population that is aging. Community is critical at any stage of life, but never more so than in later years. Cottam maintains that, in her findings, having social connections seemed to be the single most important determinant of a happy old age.

So if you want to design a better future for yourself, you’d be wise to get started on constructing that support network or “circle” that will be there for you as your life advances.

Apparently, the more diverse the circle, the better: Family provides one kind of support, friends another. And a mix of different ages and skill sets is important, says Cottam. She seems to have this down to a science, noting that an ideal social network as you get older “should include six people from very different roles—including a friendly professional, family member, a peer, a younger person, an older person.”

Learn more about Cottam and Participle’s mission at http://www.participle.net.