Humor and Aging:
Humor in the Nursing Home Setting
Introducing Humor into the Nursing Home
On-going Discussion and Discovery
This section of the ITCHS website is devoted to sharing discoveries about humor in the nursing home—discoveries made from practical, trial-and-error exercises of on-the-ground caregivers as well as from ITCHS' controlled research experiments.
In 2007, with an invitation to take the its Humor Quotient Test into Lake Winona Manor, a nursing home in Winona, Minnesota, ITCHS had the opportunity to apply insights from academic research begun in other fields to the aging services setting. Results of the Lake Winona Manor study were presented at the 2009 Aging Services of Minnesota Institute. That session, called "Laugher Is the Best Medicine," provided an opportunity to solicit input from aging services practitioners about methods for introducing humor into the aging services setting. And it additionally provided an opportunity for ITCHS to research to initiate a large-scale study of the humor preferences of the eldercare industry.
ITCHS is extremely grateful to both Lake Winona Manor and to Aging Services of Minnesota for their cooperation in launching ITCHS research into aging services humor.
This site will document on-going research and experimentation in the field of humor and aging.
Introducing Humor into the Nursing Home: caregivers share current successes and frustrations in incorporating humor into the aging services setting
Staff Humor Attitudes: a profile of attitudes toward humor in the nursing home expressed by elder-caregivers
Resident Humor Profile: a profile of humor preferred by nursing home residents at Lake Winona Manor
Staff Humor Profile: a profile of humor preferred by Minnesota elder-caregivers
Leadership Humor Differences: contrasting humor preferences between various elder-care leadership groups
Humor Quotient Newsletter: more technical reports
Research Consultantships: channel for establishing a cooperative research consultantship between ITCHS and an aging services facility