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3.2. Splitting up into working parties. Putting the aspects to be researched into words.

Three working groups started, the names of which were related to theme being researched.

The ¨Motivation group¨ tried to comprehend the motives and aversions that play a part in the decision making as to the adjusting or leaving the home. Furthermore the team would seek for resources to be able to compare the present home with the future home. The ¨Motivation team¨ outnumbered the other two teams as researching this mayor theme would be more time consuming.

The ¨Inventory group¨ (3 participants) focused on appraising the various possibilities for housing and care for the elderly and did some research on the care and housing facilities in the city of Arnhem.

The ¨Support group¨ (2 participants) was mainly engaged in government policy and private initiative regarding the elderly and housing. What social welfare organisations are important?
What will the political developments be like in future? Will the solidarity within the Dutch legislation remain?

An equal number of participants per team.
Looking back it would have been better if the teams had been equally big.
Unequal teams do not work alike and may therefore provoke unwanted responses.

3.3 Looking for information. Searching for structures and coherence.

For the non-professional researcher this presents an enormous task. The question is not where to find information, but rather how to prevent getting lost in the overwhelming quantity of information
An example: The searching machine Google gives 12.300 hits on elderly and housing; 15.500 on housing, care and welfare and 23.700 on senior citizens and living. It goes without saying that it is impossible to explore all these hits.

Information through lectures, literature and the internet.

A cycle of lectures.
The participants were offered a general orientation course by means of a U3A-cycle of lectures during which the issue of the elderly and housing was discussed by an architect, a geriatrician, a gerontologist and a managing director of a home for the aged.

Care follows money and not the other way round.
Funds for care are still being granted to intramural or extramural
service organisations based on calculations by policy makers.
Planning care should be more based on the actual needs of the elderly,
who demand a much more differentiated supply than is available at present.

Figure 5. Books and reports.

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