*Friluftsliv; a handy word meaning open-air living, capturing the Scandinavian approach to living life in harmony in nature.

The first part of my Churchill Fellowship trip, in which I am seeking to understand how to enable more nature connection for older people, has been spent in Amsterdam, a stop off on my train journey up to Norway. A few months ago, a colleague showed me an magazine article from the National Trust magazine about their Damsons group running from their property Peckover House, inspired by the Odensehuis model.   Described as a meeting place for people living with dementia and their family and carers, group members take an active role in how the group is managed. Odense is in Denmark, but there are Odensehuis across the Netherlands, so I approached a few in Amsterdam to see if I could visit and find out more. I received replies from Maartje and Hans, who work at Odensehuis in two very different parts of the city.

I arrived at Odensehuis Zuid just as lunch was being served. The cook, a volunteer from Syria, had made a delicious lentil pasta. Everybody was pitching in to lay the table, serve drinks and generally help and there was a pleasant chatter across the tables. The diners were a mix of local residents of different ages, including an artist who shared the space. An elderly gentlemen told me that he had been coming to the Odensehuis since his wife died.

” I come here every day. It is somewhere to go where people are kind and ask ‘how are you?’ It’s part of the neighbourhood.”

I was intrigued about how the participants are involved in running the group.  I didn’t need to wait long. After lunch there was a planned fire drill. Everyone made their way outside while someone pretended to call the fire brigade and someone else took a register. The whole thing took less than ten minutes. But afterwards, everyone arranged themselves around a table to discuss how it had gone. The conversation was lively and animated, and took more than twice as long as the fire practice itself! What struck me about this conversation, (which all took place in Dutch so I wasn’t able to follow the words), was how engaged everyone was in it. They clearly didn’t all agree, but each view was amicably expressed and heard.  The facilitator, Maartje kicked off the question; ‘What went well. What could be better?’ and prompted a quieter member to contribute, but largely took a back seat, enabling individuals to have their say and discuss ideas and solutions. This approach is not unfamiliar, we use it in work meetings and advocate for it in our forest school reflection sessions, but I feel it isn’t always used well in community discussion, in particular with older people. Its common to hear people speaking on behalf of people who may have care needs and there is often a sense, however well meaning, to do things FOR rather than WITH older people, which can undermine participants sense of self-worth. People living with dementia often talk about feeling undervalued and losing confidence, as everyday tasks become more difficult, but here I could see people engaging fully, confident that they had a voice and an active part to play in their community.

This sense of everyone being valued was apparent in my second Odensehuis visit of the week too. Zuidoost is in a different part of the city, much further out of the city centre, a fact I should have accounted for, as my cycle there took far longer than I had estimated, and I arrived hot, sweaty and late. A large group had already gathered and were taking part in a yoga class when I arrived. After it had finished, Hans introduced me and I got an undeserved round of applause for cycling there, (the Dutch cycle everywhere so I can’t think they were really that impressed!).  Then we watched the short film about Get Out More from our website, which prompted some questions about our outdoor activities, so I invited them to join me for a short nature connection session outside after lunch

The Odensehuis Zuidoost is situated in a multicultural neighbourhood with blocks of flats arranged around a commercial precinct and park. It reminded me of where we work in Bradford district. The Zuidoost Odensehuis runs for 2 days per week from a community centre, which provides a wide range of other services. Hans explained that this is different from the Odensehuis Zuid which has its own space and can therefore run activities every day. However he likes their model too as it means people coming to their dementia-friendly space then get involved in other activities at the centre and fully participate in neighbourhood life.

The nature session provoked a lot of smiles and laughter in the sunny garden space outside and afterwards I joined some of the group in a ‘cultural pharmacy’. A volunteer read some extracts of books and poetry which the group then discussed. Once again I couldn’t follow the language, but it gave me the opportunity to listen in to the feel of the conversation. What impressed me again was how engaged everyone was. They were not easy pieces of text; they spent some time unpicking the meaning of a piece about a man in jail, which then led to someone recounting a story of how they had been asked to ‘smuggle’ cash back to family abroad, causing some hot debate in the group. The mood was lightened by a poem about waterfowl and its mysterious last line about children’s socks. Hans had translated the poem for me, so I was able to chip in that perhaps the feathers lying in the grass reminded the poet of the socks that children discard. Much laughter that the English woman had shed light on the Dutch poem!

What I loved about the cultural pharmacy, and the Odensehuis in general, was that there was no suggestion of dumbing down at all.  This group of elders were respected for their insight and their stories and all voices were sought and valued.  The Odensehuis are not especially focused on nature-based activities, although both I visited had walking groups and arrange visits to natural and cultural places of interest.  But what I learnt from visiting them is the inclusive approach.  They sit firmly in their communities as a meeting place where people, including people living with dementia, feel safe, welcomed and respected.  People come to learn, eat, chat and support one another.  The Odensehuis play an important role in their community, breaking down the barriers between people living with dementia and their neighbours, removing stigma. They are very much part of their communities, not seperate from it.  The gentleman’s comment stuck with me, ‘Its just part of the neighbourhood’.

Huge thank you to Maartje, Hans and all the members of the Odensehuis I met, for welcoming me into your space and inspiring me.  I hope you like the Yorkshire tea, (although initial feedback seems to be its too strong for Dutch tastes!)

Next stop:  Norway