A CENTRAL Victorian school expected a few dozen students to sign up for aged care visits when they started trialling a new subject.
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Now, they are turning teenagers away and scouring the state for more aged care homes interested in the innovative program.
Catherine McAuley College has finally been able to publicly celebrate the success of a year 10 subject with life altering consequences for students who forge friendships with residents of Mercy Health Bethlehem Home for the Aged.
The program has become an unlikely success not just because of the huge number of students signing up - 150 this year alone - but because until this year has been run mostly online because of COVID-19.
Not anymore.
Groups of students now regularly visit Mercy Health's Specimen Hill Road home and forge connections that might alter the course of their lives.
Multiple students are now considering careers in aged care and many have stayed in touch long after their semester in the so-called iGEN subject has finished.
Mercy Health resident Marita Stevenson has kept all the letters of thanks students have sent her.
"A few came in around Christmas time with gifts. It was wonderful," she said.
"That's the connection that we get out of one another."
Marita spent Thursday morning catching up with year 10 student Jack McMahon.
"We talk about all different things, what they've been doing that week, pets, it's great," she said.
Jack has just finished the iGEN subject.
"It's like having another grandma or grandpa," he said.
"They have had so many life experiences, compared to us. Marita and I have only met a couple of times but here we are talking like we are best friends - the residents are so easy to talk to."
College principal Brian Turner said many students had sought out advice from residents on complicated problems they faced.
The residents had drawn on their wealth of knowledge and life experiences to help out.
"For some of our students that is pretty unique," Mr Turner said.
Other students have found doors open that could shape their future careers.
Year 11 students Ben and Tom Reid enjoyed the subject so much they returned over the summer holidays to do work experience.
"We were doing a lot of jobs to help care for the residents like social activities and getting to observe how the staff interact," Tom said.
"It was really cool because we got a deeper understanding of what goes on in a place like this. The staff put in a lot of effort and it's very inspirational."
The Reid brothers spent the morning catching up with married couple Barbara and Graeme Martin.
"They are such lovely boys," Barbara said.
"I'm often Graeme's only visitor, so it's wonderful to have these young people."
Studies show the sort of intergenerational learning going on in the iGEN subject helps both young and older people build a sense of social cohesion, Mercy Health executive Felix Pintado said.
"We believe it will lead to an increased feeling of self-worth, decreased levels of loneliness, isolation and depression and more hours of social interaction," he said.
Researchers from Australian Catholic University are tracking the Bendigo program to glean insights that could bring students and aged care home residents even closer together.
That could help governments and aged care workers rethink the way the industry works after the 2021 Royal Commission into Aged Care's scathing assessment of the way older Australians are perceived and valued.
It urged the industry to seek out innovative solutions.
Catherine McAuley College is keen to be part of those ideas.
It has reached out to aged care homes in other towns as it grapples with demand from students to take part in iGEN.
"There are students on waiting lists who miss out. We never expected this level of growth," Mr Turner said.
"As our college gets bigger we need to diversify and look at different aged care settings."
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Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
