Storytelling as an Occupation: A Look Inside the Flanner House Senior Center

Abstract

Occupational therapy (OT) is a holistic healthcare profession that aims to promote aging in place and improve client daily performance and participation through the use of meaningful occupations. This paper describes an OT doctoral capstone student’s project on the theoretical frameworks and facilitation of storytelling and its effectiveness within lower socioeconomic community-dwelling seniors. This collaboration and experience took place at Flanner House, a social service organization located in Indianapolis, Indiana. All elders have stories to share, however these seniors represent a larger population of Black older adults who have faced societal stereotypes and prejudice surrounding age and race. These social determinants impact geriatric care and services, therefore negatively influencing health and well-being. Storytelling was utilized to capture the senior’s life stories at Flanner House into a story book in an effort to share their histories and advocate for these individuals and community. Storytelling was a meaningful and therapeutic occupation for the older adults, and the stories shared also gave insight into future program development recommendations. The act of storytelling, as both an evaluation and intervention tool, can help to create an environment that is client-centered and promotes positive feelings towards aging.