Starting Wednesday 14 August Healthy Start Ambition Lead and assistant professor Clinical Psychology Lysanne te Brinke appears in the new MAX tv show ‘Tieners tegen kwalen’ (‘Teens against ailments’).

What happens when eight elderly people and eight teenagers spend time together? The new MAX tv show ‘Tieners tegen kwalen’ is a social experiment. Almost half of all 75+ elderly people in the Netherlands feels lonely and sixty percent of Dutch youth also face loneliness and mental health issues. At healthcare centre Roomburgh in Leiden the sixteen participants of the show participate in a different activity every week that enables them to get to know each other better.

Besides Lysanne te Brinke also clinical psychologist Robin van den Kieboom, endowed professor elderly participation Tineke Abma and activity leader Remy Verwey join the team of experts. Te Brinke: “It was such an amazing experience to follow the teens in the programme, go into societal themes that we encountered, like feelings of loneliness, performance pressure and wanting to be heard and seen. The programme shows that strenghtening intergenerational contact can be useful not only for elderly people, but youth as well. The teens suprised me with their openness, involvement, positivity and humor!”

Starting Wednesday 14 August
9.20 PM at MAX, NPO 1