No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
References
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
What needs to happen, is that new models of care, alternative models of care, need to do away with the slippery slope [a direct line from residential to institutional living], and allow people to remain in highly residential settings where the services that they need are being brought to them, in some way, shape or form, and I believe that we haven't begun to tap the potential for creativity and innovation for bringing services to people who are remaining in settings of their choice, and I also firmly believe that creative applications of that can also be done in very cost effective ways."
This book explores the ways in which a diverse group of feminist and participatory action researchers experience, create meaning,and respond to the challenges of engaging in collaborative processes of reflection, action, and change.
While headed in similar directions, rarely have feminist researchers and participatory action researchers acknowledged each other as collaborators with mutually important contributions to the journey. Through the work presented in this volume, the contributors hope to influence feminist scholarship to be more participatory and action-oriented, and participatory action research to be more grounded in feminist theories and values.
This book has two distinct yet interrelated and intertwining aims. First, it creates a space for a diverse group of educators, researchers, and scholars to grapple with the multiple and complex issues that are threaded throughout feminist and action research. Second, it seeks to examine how action research and feminist research can complement each other in developing strategies for engaging in collaborative research that is rooted in activism and productive change.
Older adults prefer to live in their own homes for as long as possible — to 'age in place' — but for myriad reasons may be unable to do so. To address this, a number of housing alternatives have been explored, including homesharing, or homeshare, an exchange-based shared housing approach with the potential to empower older adults to age in place by enabling them to obtain additional income, companionship, and assistance with completing household tasks in exchange for renting out a room in their home. An intergenerational homesharing pilot program was launched in Toronto, matching older adults (55+) with postsecondary students. With limited research in the area, a mixed methods research study was embedded within the pilot project with the goals of: 1) conducting a scoping review to map and synthesize the literature related to outcomes of homeshare participation for this population, 2) conducting in-depth interviews with homeshare participants (N=22) to learn about their experiences, and 3) conduct a full evaluation and exit survey to better understand the implications of the project. Results were organized around the following themes: (1) benefits and challenges of participating in homeshare for older adults; (2) intergenerational engagement as social exchange; and (3) the key role of agency facilitation as a determinant of the experience of homesharing for older adults. Results spoke to the unique benefits and challenges of participating in homeshare for this population. Findings were used to derive implications for policy and practice, as well as highlight areas for future research.
The World Health Organization’s age-friendly city initiative emerged as a response to the intersecting global trends of population ageing and urbanisation. However, a third global trend—digitalisation—has largely been overlooked in research and policy making relating to age-friendly cities and communities. Within the context of a general shift towards online civic participatory activities, this article explores older adults’ digital citizenship in an age-friendly city in the North of England. Drawing on interviews, observations and field notes from design workshops as part of an ongoing participatory action research project, we consider two key questions. First, how does an age-friendly city stakeholder organisation of older adults make use of digital technologies in order to provide digital information and communications? Second, what is the potential of digital audio to increase civic participation in later life and local engagement with age-friendly issues? Our analysis focuses on two domains of the World Health Organization’s age-friendly city framework: Communication and information and civic participation. First, we report on the stakeholder organisation’s efforts to re-design their digital newsletter in order to provide information and communications to older residents about local work on ageing projects. We then outline the organisation’s efforts, in a public setting, to engage with digital audio as a way to increase the participation of older residents with age-friendly topics. We conclude by suggesting the need to re-frame the role of digital technologies within the age-friendly city, broadening the scope from accessibility towards enhancing digital citizenship opportunities.
The transition of the baby boomer bulge into old age and their increasing longevity will lift the numbers of elderly in residential aged care. Population ageing and associated fiscal pressures have motivated governments to shift responsibility for the financing of aged care to the individual. We consider policies that include owner-occupiers’ housing wealth and imputed rental incomes in means tests that determine co-contribution charges for residential aged care. Differences in how housing wealth is included in the residential aged care resource tests of three OECD countries – Australia, England and the Netherlands – are documented. We find some neglected equity implications as tenants in all three countries typically pay higher co-payments for their residential aged care than homeowners with similar wealth holdings. These outcomes are a consequence of the concessional treatment of owners’ housing equity stakes, and of wider significance given the growing importance of asset-based welfare strategies. England has relatively progressive asset and income tests that offer more limited concessions.
Background
Day centres are a substantial element of community-based support for older people in many countries. However, assumptions that they are an outdated or costly service model have resulted in many centre closures in England. The perspectives of 42 people attending, providing, making referrals to or purchasing places at four diverse day centres for older people were collected in interviews. Using these data, we explore day centres’ relevance to social workers’ efforts to promote person-centred support for older people enabling them to maintain or improve their well-being. These are explored from the perspectives of choice, control and person-centredness and local authority responsibilities for shaping the care market under the Care Act 2014.
Findings
Attenders highly valued centres’ congregate nature and the continuity they offered which contributed to the development of person-centred relationships. Attenders exercised choice in attending day centres. Social work staff were more positive about day centres’ relevance to personalisation than those responsible for making decisions about the shape of local care services.
Applications
With social isolation recognised as a serious risk of old age, the value of togetherness in group environments may need highlighting. Enactment of personalisation policies need not necessarily lead to individualisation; day centres may be community-based assets for some. Those shaping the care market may be encouraged to acknowledge wider outcomes, and frontline social workers may benefit from hearing positive experiences that may help in the development of effective care plans for older people who would like to benefit from day centre participation.
As the European population ages, there is an escalating need for age-friendly standards to support development of effective products and services involving information and communication technologies (ICT), thereby improving usability for all consumers, including older people. Co-production with users through inclusive and participatory processes provides several benefits to standardization, including enhanced understanding of market needs, clearer identification and mitigation of risks, and increased legitimacy of the standards developed. Ideally, co-production includes users from a range of backgrounds. However, older people, especially those aged over 80 years, are often the least likely in the population to be involved. This paper reports on barriers and challenges to inclusive co-production from the perspectives of a range of stakeholders participating in the European Commission-funded project PROGRESSIVE: Progressive Standards around ICT for Active and Healthy Ageing. It identifies potential ways to improve the participation of older people in the co-production of standards.
Government policies during the COVID-19 pandemic have drastically altered patterns of energy demand around the world. Many international borders were closed and populations were confined to their homes, which reduced transport and changed consumption patterns. Here we compile government policies and activity data to estimate the decrease in CO2 emissions during forced confinements. Daily global CO2 emissions decreased by –17% (–11 to –25% for ±1σ) by early April 2020 compared with the mean 2019 levels, just under half from changes in surface transport. At their peak, emissions in individual countries decreased by –26% on average. The impact on 2020 annual emissions depends on the duration of the confinement, with a low estimate of –4% (–2 to –7%) if prepandemic conditions return by mid-June, and a high estimate of –7% (–3 to –13%) if some restrictions remain worldwide until the end of 2020. Government actions and economic incentives postcrisis will likely influence the global CO2 emissions path for decades. COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns have altered global energy demands. Using government confinement policies and activity data, daily CO2 emissions have decreased by ~17% to early April 2020 against 2019 levels; annual emissions could be down by 7% (4%) if normality returns by year end (mid-June).
Housing adaptation aims to enable clients to live independently in their own homes. Studies focusing on participation in everyday life following a housing adaptation are lacking and needed. This study aimed to explore housing adaptation clients' experiences of participation in everyday life before and after a housing adaptation, through the lens of a housing adaptation, using a qualitative follow-up design, with 11 participants. It was found that when the housing adaptation met the participants' needs, performance of activities improved and the housing adaptation opened doors to engagement and participation in everyday life. Thus, focus on performance and engagement in everyday life at the onset of the housing adaptation process, combined with regular follow-ups, may enhance participation.
A large proportion of the Swedish housing stock was built when policymakers and housing industry rarely considered housing accessibility issues. More than 80% of Swedish citizens aged 65+ live in dwellings built before 1980. Using detailed research data from onsite observations, we explored housing accessibility issues for people with different complexities of functional limitations. Four typical dwellings were selected, two from the 1960s and two from the 1990s. Accessibility problems were considerable, also in newer dwellings. Design features that need particular attention are highlighted, serving as research-based input to policymakers, public agencies and actors involved in housing development and provision.
This book is a timely collection of interdisciplinary and critical chapters about the fields of ageing studies and the sociology of everyday life as broadly conceived to explore the meaningful connections between subjective lives and social worlds in later life. The scope of the writing expands beyond traditional approaches in these fields to engage with cross-cultural, feminist, spatial, ethnographic, technological, cinematic, new media and arts research. Readers will find the detailed attention to everyday experiences, places, biographies, images, routines, intimacies and temporalities illuminating, while appreciating the wider critiques of ageism and exclusion that inform each chapter. The book also contributes to the growing international area of ‘critical gerontology’ by comprising two parts on ‘materialities’ and ‘embodiments’, foci that emphasize the material and embodied contexts that shape the experiences of ageing. The chapters on ‘materialities’ investigate things, possessions, homes, technologies, environments, and their representations, while the complementary chapters on ‘embodiments’ examine living spaces, clothing, care practices, mobility, touch, gender and sexuality, and health and lifestyle regimes. Overall, in both its parts the book contests the dominant cultural narratives of vulnerability, frailty and disability that dominate ageing societies today and offers in their place the resourceful potential of local and lived spheres of agency, citizenship, humanity and capability.
Introduction
The globalisation of international migration flows is changing the demographics of ageing populations across the world and the ethnic composition of most societies (Castles and Miller, 1998). Even if some regions of the world are more affected than others, few societies are entirely exempted from this phenomenon. With specific respect to Europe, Muus (2001) has argued that the globalisation of international migration has transformed the European Union into a de facto region of immigration. This is why Warnes et al (2004) have proposed that this phenomenon is as important to the study of ageing and old age as population ageing itself. As is also suggested in Chapter Two, globalisation is transforming the very boundaries we regard as relevant to the experience of ageing (Phillipson, 2009).
The feminisation and differentiation that characterise current migration flows are two features of particular interest to migration researchers (Castles and Miller, 1998). It was once the case that most migrants were men and that most of those who migrated across national borders had relatively disadvantaged backgrounds (at least if compared to people in the receiving countries; migration research has since shown that, compared to those left behind in the sending countries, migrants are often relatively privileged). Nowadays, neither the gender nor the background of migrants can be taken for granted. For example, women now play a central role in almost all forms of migration flows. With respect to the differentiation of migration flows to Europe, King (2002) has argued that the globalisation of international migration challenges us to consider migration in new ways since the pervasive assumption that all migrants are poor and uneducated no longer holds true – and probably never did hold true. It is for these reasons that migration researchers have urged other social scientists to acknowledge that the globalisation of international migration should not be reduced to the upswing in migration flows with which it is typically associated (Castles, 2000; Faist, 2000). The challenges that this phenomenon poses are actually far greater. What is actually at stake is our very understanding of what culture is (Tomlinson, 1999), who migrants and refugees are (Castles, 2000; Richmond, 2002), and how inequality and the so-called ‘periphery’ are to be addressed (Beck, 2000).
This original book analyses the links between development, population ageing and the experiences of older people, especially in developing countries where more than eighty per cent of the increase in people aged over sixty will take place over the coming decades.
i>Community and Ageing investigates changing concepts and experiences of community into older age and how they play out in housing with care settings, with an overview of the housing with care sector in the UK and internationally. It explores the impact of a range of factors, from social networks to diversity and the built environment.
Introduction
In Britain today, living arrangements vary: we live on our own, as couples, in families or in non-related groups, across a range of dwelling types and experiencing different forms of domesticity and tenure. While older members of the population are likely to have experienced rented accommodation during their lives, over the past 30 years home ownership among this group has increased dramatically. The English Housing Survey for 2008-09 indicates that for people aged 65 years and over, owner-occupation has increased from less than 50% in 1981 to 75% in 2008-09, with 60% owning their home without a mortgage (DCLG, 2010). More recent data indicates the continuation of this trend, with 83% of the over-60s in England and 91% of 76- to 80-year-olds currently owner-occupiers (Ota, 2015, p 26; DCLG, 2017). The vast majority of older people live in mainstream housing in age-integrated communities; although just over half a million live in either retirement housing including sheltered and extra-care housing, and just under half a million of the most vulnerable live in care homes (Laing, 2014; Darton et al, 2012; Pannell and Blood, 2012).
For those no longer engaged in paid employment, the home environment can often form the central focus of everyday experience. So for those concerned with understanding person-environment (PE) interaction in later life and whether design enables congruence or creates mismatch (see Lawton, 1980; Peace et al, 2006; Iwarsson, 2013), focusing attention on one domestic space within the home creates the opportunity for an in-depth analysis. In this chapter, attention centres on the domestic kitchen in mainstream and supportive housing. The kitchen has many meanings: it is a functional space, a food environment, a place of storage, an activity space and central hub. For many, it is gendered space where ‘women's work’ as ‘housewife’ was, and still is, contained and where confrontation over public/private lives has changed across the 20th century (Oakley, 1974; Silva, 2010).
Historical design, social engagement and personal need are central to literature concerning the domestic kitchen (see Eveleigh, 2004). In her book The making of the modern kitchen (Freeman, 2004) , June Freeman begins with two comments that have resonance for this chapter.
Connectivity from a governance perspective
The way in which people connect with each other in particular places (such as rural areas) has been discussed and evaluated in many different ways. The dominant contemporary characterisation among policymakers and politicians the world over tends to be a functionalist one: people connecting together offer great potential for social integration, the development of collective values and social cohesion (Forrest and Kearns, 2001; Wilkinson, 2008). It is assumed that stronger integration and greater social cohesion will make society a better place (Jaffe and Quark, 2006). In relation to older people, this rationale is reflected, for example, in the national strategy on ageing for the UK (HM Government, 2009), which promotes building links between people of different generations as a means of strengthening bonds within communities. Governments produce guidance manuals on how to promote a sense of belonging in local communities (Department of Communities and Local Government, 2009) and government agencies develop measures to show how well connected communities are, with variables relating to trusting people, helping in the community, volunteering and generally being good citizens (Grootaert et al, 2004; Economic and Social Data Service, 2011).
This notion of social connectivity is a useful one for governments and tends to be a common policy objective, even where motives for introducing it might differ. There are a number of different political traditions that can lead to the common policy outcome of increased social connectivity. In the North American neo-liberal tradition, social connectivity shows how people have the ability to look after themselves and avoid the ignominy of dependence upon the state (Cruickshank, 1996; Wilkinson, 2010). It allows the development of personal freedoms, particularly where community action can release communities from publicly provided services over which they have little control (Lemke, 2001). Individual rights take over from state controls to allow individuals to reshape their lives (Rose, 1999).
In the UK, promoting increased social connectivity has allowed successive governments of all major political parties over the past 20 years to advocate (and develop policies for) ‘stakeholding’ societies, ‘active citizens’, ‘third way’ politics and the Big Society. Such independence from the state has also been advocated as a means of reducing exchequer cost (Taylor, 2003) and the size of government (Barnes et al, 2007), and is seen as a political justification for policies concerned with empowering communities.
The need has never been greater for products, services and environments to be developed in such a way that they do not exclude, but instead reflect more accurately the diverse demands of today's users – particularly older and disabled people. (Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, Foreword, in Clarkson et al, 2003)
Introduction
Knowledge transfer is the starting point for this chapter, which has been crafted by members of six collaborative research teams who have been involved in unique projects concerning aspects of everyday living for older people, addressing issues of technology and design from a human perspective. A real dichotomy underpins this work, because while the focus has been on working with and learning from people in later life, all address issues that may affect people of all ages. So there is a real sense that while we may continue to highlight the underpinning ageism of designers, retailers and the youth-obsessed market, what we are really demonstrating is the importance of inclusive or universal design (Coleman, 1994) throughout the life course, or what has been called ‘transgenerational design’ (Pirkl, 1994). In recognising this we can see that this body of work from the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) Programme builds on the seminal research carried out for the i-design consortium funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (2002–07) that brought together researchers in engineering and design (see Clarkson et al, 2003; Royal College of Art, 2012). It also recognises the dynamism of design outlined here by Fuad-Luke (2009, p xix):
The real JOY of design is to deliver fresh perspectives, improved well-being and an intuitive sense of balance with the wider world. The real SPIRIT of design elicits some higher meaning. The real POWER of design is that professionals and laypeople can co-design in amazingly creative ways. The real BEAUTY of design is its potential for secular, pluralistic expression. The real STRENGTH of design is this healthy variance of expression. The real RELEVANCE of design is its ability to be proactive. The real PASSION of design is in its philosophical, ethical and practical debate.
The NDA researchers also include a wide range of disciplines, bringing together social and medical scientists and the humanities alongside engineering and design colleagues.
An outstanding ground floor one-bedroom conversion with two reception rooms and direct access to a private rear garden. Excellent decorative condition and peacefully located within a short walk of the train station. (Estate agent advertisement in local paper)
36 small studio flats in a two-storey development consisting of six interconnecting blocks, each with its own communal kitchen, dining area and bathroom. This scheme is intended for very frail (though not confused) elderly people and can be considered a ‘bridge’ between sheltered housing and full residential care. There is a team of staff maintaining 24-hr cover rather than a single warden. (Local authority, extra-care scheme information leaflet)
Introduction
These quotations illustrate a point about the image of housing for older people in the UK at the beginning of the 21st century. The first, an estate agent's description of a property on the open market, emphasises its attractiveness, privacy and convenience: a place which sounds pleasant to stay in, nice to visit, easy to get away from. The second presents the property as a provision for a particular group – by implication needy people more concerned about being cared for than caring about the place where they live (but not presenting behavioural problems). This reflects attitudes to ‘ordinary – age-integrated’ and ‘specialised – agerelated’ housing as much as the differences between the two places, raising issues about integration, segregation and the capacity of the environment – built and social – to support ‘ordinary life’. Social exclusion is currently a major political issue. The divisions between people who are able to take part fully in the life of the community, and those who are hindered from doing so by material and cultural deprivation, are seen as harmful to the whole of society, and the present rhetoric is one of inclusion and enablement. Older people – particularly the very old – are among those groups which, by virtue of their relative economic disadvantage and increased propensity for long-term limiting conditions and disabilities, are most at risk from social exclusion and its consequences. Our particular focus in this book is the environment of old age, which can help or hinder the integration of older people within their communities. We will explore some of the ways in which forms of housing and attitudes to the housing needs of older people have changed and will continue to do so as the 21st century progresses.
Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to establish and describe the critical human ecology lens that challenges assumptions about growing older in rural areas. This lens is an essential element of the book in which we consider the interactions of older adults with the rural contexts that shape their experiences. Rural communities incorporate many elements of diversity that influence the lives of older adults: climate, landscape, distance from family networks, availability and access to services, migration patterns, community economic viability, age, gender roles and relationships. In this chapter we establish the structure and overall approach to the book, presenting the overall goals of the book and how the chapters address these goals. Throughout, we address the question: ‘Are rural communities good places to grow old?’.
Considering the ‘rural’ in rural ageing
The title of this book, Rural ageing, reflects our guiding assumption that experiences of ageing are diverse, and that understanding this diversity requires an expanded consideration of ageing in various contexts. Rural is one such context. As Bonnie Dobbs and Laurel Strain note in Chapter Nine, a substantial proportion of the world's population lives in rural areas – from approximately 25% in North and South America to more than 60% in Africa and Asia. Older adults are over-represented in these rural places and their proportion of the population is growing faster than in urban areas (Hart et al, 2005; Statistics Canada, 2007a).
Increasing importance is attached to the geographies of rural areas (Cloke et al, 1997; Friedland, 2002), challenging views of hinterlands bereft of opportunity and socially and culturally lagging (Wiebe, 2001) or of idyllic pastoral settings (Bell, 1997). Such unidimensional views of rurality leave little scope for understanding the variety of rural places. Furthermore, older adults have often been made invisible by ‘predominantly male, white, middle class, middle-aged, straight and able-bodied’ views of rural residents (Cloke et al, 1997, p 211). We expand these rural discourses through our focus on the lives of a variety of older adults in diverse rural surroundings.
There are a number of ways in which one can understand rurality, and definitions have been the subject of much debate. However, they can be broadly categorised within two approaches. These are rural as a distinctive type of locality and rural as a social representation (Halfacree, 1993; Atkin, 2003).
Introduction
Despite the considerable growth of interest in user participation in policy and service development and more recently research, the definition and meaning of participation is a contested and ideologically loaded concept (Braye, 2000). There remains considerable uncertainty as to what does or should constitute participation and what its purpose should be. While there may be significant agreement in the research community that the participation of older people in research is (at least in principle) a good thing, its potential remains significantly underdeveloped as do the complexities of participation. Who should, for example, benefit from research? To what extent should research impact be judged on its success in contributing to positive change for older women and men? What sort of criteria might be used to judge the success or otherwise, in older people's participation in research?
The potential for participation to become the ‘big idea’, which must be achieved at all costs, carries with it the risk of what Beresford (2003, p 1) has described as a “tick box approach to participation”. At its worst, a predominantly superficial approach to participation could trivialise or underplay both its complexities and potential. In reality, a critical and complete analysis of participation in research is absent. As it stands at present, this omission raises a range of complex issues for researchers and user participants within all areas of the research process (Beresford, 2003).
The aim of this chapter is to review critically some of the questions that surround the participation of older women and men in gerontological research. This discussion is set in the context of increased interest in participation across research, policy and practice. An engagement with democratic approaches to user participation in gerontological research has the potential to make progress in a number of areas that are of critical importance to older people. But changes in this direction would imply fundamental changes to, for example, traditional approaches to research; the ways in which research is organised; and the goals and aspirations for dissemination and action from research. The chapter begins by setting participation in research in the context of the wider drives towards citizen participation. The ways in which participation approaches are informed by different ideological positions are reviewed.
Recognition that old age is a socially defined category challenges conventional analyses of the geography of aging. In this paper I call for a political analysis of the ways in which the built environment is implicated in the reproduction of, and challenges to, labels associated with aging populations and thus with the construction of elderly identities. The role of struggles around the built environment in changing definitions of old age is illustrated with a case study from Toronto.
A study was conducted among 30 older adults in Mauritius about the use kitchens. They were interviewed firstly about the kitchens they had experienced in the past, and secondly to discuss and demonstrate their current kitchen and how easily they could use it. It was found that while some of the participants had age-related disabilities, they were all doing their best to cope with kitchen tasks. However, many were found to be attached to traditional equipment rather than newer labour-saving products. The study shows that there is a need to for a more inclusive approach to kitchen design to make life easier for this group of people. There is also a requirement to promote the benefits of modern kitchen gadgets as allowing them to live independently for longer.
This chapter discusses the Grey and Pleasant Land project on rural ageing which focused on older people’s connections to and participation in community life in diverse rural settings in southwest England and Wales. The interdisiplinary approach used to investigate the types, extent and experiences of older people’s ‘connectivity’ in these rural places is described, including the combination of empirical and arts-based methods. Seven principal types of connectivities identified are elaborated using examples from the research findings: civic engagement; social participation; intergenerational relations; connections to the landscape; connectivity and group identity; virtual connectivity; and imaginative connectivity. The implications of these connectivities of older people as sources of rural community capital with the potential to sustain ageing populations in these areas are discussed.
Objectives:
Accessing social care and social support services is key to support the well-being of people living with dementia (PLWD) and unpaid carers. COVID-19 has caused sudden closures or radical modifications of these services, and is resulting in prolonged self-isolation. The aim of this study was to explore the effects of COVID-19 related social care and support service changes and closures on the lives of PLWD and unpaid carers.
Method:
PLWD and unpaid carers were interviewed via telephone in April 2020. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Demographic characteristics including household Index of Multiple Deprivation score and weekly hours of social support service usage before and since the COVID-19 outbreak were also collected. Paired samples t-tests was used to compare the mean of weekly hours of social support service usage before and since the outbreak.
Results:
50 semi-structured interviews were conducted with unpaid carers (n = 42) and PLWD (n = 8). There was a significant reduction in social support service usage since the outbreak. Thematic analysis identified three overarching themes: (1) Loss of control; (2) Uncertainty; (3) Adapting and having to adapt to the new normal. Carers and PLWD were greatly affected by the sudden removal of social support services, and concerned about when services would re-open. Carers were worried about whether the person they cared for would still be able to re-join social support services.
Conclusions:
PLWD and carers need to receive specific practical and psychological support during the pandemic to support their well-being, which is severely affected by public health restrictions.
Older people are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a profound impact on research as well as clinical service delivery. This commentary identifies key challenges and opportunities in continuing to conduct research with and for older people, both during and after the current pandemic. It shares opinions from responders to an international survey, a range of academic authors and opinions from specialist societies. Priorities in COVID-19 research include its specific presentation in older people, consequences for physical, cognitive and psychological health, treatments and vaccines, rehabilitation, supporting care homes more effectively, the impact of social distancing, lockdown policies and system reconfiguration to provide best health and social care for older people. COVID-19 research needs to be inclusive, particularly involving older people living with frailty, cognitive impairment or multimorbidity, and those living in care homes. Non-COVID-19 related research for older people remains of critical importance and must not be neglected in the rush to study the pandemic. Profound changes are required in the way that we design and deliver research for older people in a world where movement and face-to-face contact are restricted, but we also highlight new opportunities such as the ability to collaborate more widely and to design and deliver research efficiently at scale and speed.
Home modification or adaptation is an important global issue, especially for older people living with disabilities in ordinary housing of varying ages, and pre-dating concerns about accessibility in design. Comparisons of research from five developed nations identify common themes: variation in integrated service development; public and private financial investment; deferred health costs; workforce expansion and training; and the value of the user perspective. Further discussion identifies the importance of retrofitting alongside new build, and argues for sustainable housing that recognizes population aging but also issues of climate change and the need for more inclusive design of housing for all ages.
Housing options for older people in the United Kingdom (UK) have been rather limited to remaining living ‘independently’ in one's own home and some variant of institutionally provided, pre-established and age-exclusive housing such as retirement communities, extra-care or sheltered housing. However, interest in alternative forms of housing and living which align more closely with the expectations of those currently entering later life is steadily growing. In this paper, we present some findings from original, mixed-methods research on the UK's only established example of senior co-housing, which also happens to be women only. Through thematic analysis, we explore two key questions about this important social experiment: (a) is this a model merely for the dedicated, activist and privileged few, as is often presumed; and (b) what might it tell us about post-traditional ageing. Is it merely a retirement lifestyle choice and identity project, grounded in logics of age denial, activity, choice, individualism and risk management? Our findings cannot be conclusive at this stage, but they do suggest a new model of later-life dwelling for the UK based on more collectivist values of inter-dependence, commitment, learning and, even, love.
This report is a good practice guide for employers on becoming an age-friendly employment. It recommends action in 5 key areas. An evidence report informs these recommendations: Smeaton and Parry (2018): https://www.ageing-better.org.uk/sites/default/files/2018-09/Being-age-friendly-employer-evidence-report.pdf
Background:
according to the World Health Organisation, the role of the environment for older adults is to maintain and facilitate independence and promote quality of life. However, measures that examine the environment in terms of its potential impact on older people are either oriented towards specific aspects of the environment, specifically designed for community-level assessment rather than individually oriented, or are unwieldy for everyday use.
Objectives:
this article describes the development and validation of the Age-friendly Environment Assessment Tool (AFEAT), assessing whether individual function and frailty impact on perceptions of environmental age-friendliness. The extent to which such perceptions may have moderate impacts of frailty on outcomes such as need for care support, quality of life and loneliness is examined.
Methods:
a total of 132 participants aged 58-96 were recruited from retirement villages and local communities in the Midlands of the UK. Participants completed the AFEAT, and a series of measures designed to assess frailty and assessments of quality of life, loneliness and perceptions of functional limitations.
Results:
internal reliability assessment indicated that the AFEAT possesses a Cronbach's Alpha score of 0.745. The AFEAT significantly predicted quality of life and loneliness, accounting for 17.1% and 5.8% of variance respectively, indicating high concurrent and predictive validity. Furthermore, the AFEAT moderated the predictive strength of frailty in predicting the amount of formal care an individual receives, but not quality of life or loneliness.
Discussion:
the AFEAT is a valid and reliable tool, and analyses highlight the need for an individual-oriented age-friendly environment tool.
Compared to research on home in circumstances of aging, place and care, our knowledge about home in relation to couplehood is limited despite increases in the percentage of married and cohabiting older people in the UK. Specifically, our understanding of the experience and meaning of home for couples where one partner has dementia remains under-explored. This article presents a scoping review of published empirical literature to examine older couples’ experiences of home in dementia. The literature identified and reviewed through searching academic databases and Google Scholar is interdisciplinary and a thematic analysis suggests interactions of couplehood, home and dementia. To discuss these interactions, we use Bourdieu’s framework of field, capital, practice and habitus. We observe that habitus may gradually alter and fracture. But, in locating and supporting the performance of (adapted) everyday relationships and domestic practices, home has a distinct role in contributing to conserving habitus and in turn continuity of relationships and home. The gradual fracturing of habitus with the progression of dementia however also suggests that the continuity of relationships and home remain contingent, but this needs further investigation. It is an element of home futures that cannot remain invisible.
The Lancet Countdown is an international, multidisciplinary
collaboration, dedicated to monitoring the
evolving health profile of climate change, and providing
an independent
assessment of the delivery of commitments
made by governments worldwide under the
Paris Agreement.
The 2019 report presents an annual update of
41 indicators across five key domains: climate change
impacts, exposures, and vulnerability; adaptation, planning,
and resilience for health; mitigation actions and
health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public
and political engagement. The report represents the
findings and consensus of 35 leading academic institutions
and UN agencies from every continent. Each
year, the methods and data that underpin the Lancet
Countdown’s indicators are further developed and
improved, with updates described at each stage of this
report. The collaboration draws on the world-class
expertise of climate scientists; ecologists; mathematicians;
engineers; energy, food, and transport experts;
economists; social and political scientists; public health
professionals; and doctors, to generate the quality and
diversity of data required.
The science of climate change describes a range of
possible futures, which are largely dependent on the
degree of action or inaction in the face of a warming
world. The policies implemented will have far-reaching
effects in determining these eventualities, with the
indicators tracked here monitoring both the present-day
effects of climate change, as well as the worldwide
response. Understanding these decisions as a choice
between one of two pathways—one that continues with
the business as usual response and one that redirects to a
future that remains ‘‘well below 2°C’’—helps to bring the
importance of recognising the effects of climate change
and the necessary response to the forefront.
Evidence provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, the International Energy Agency, and
the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration
clarifies the degree and magnitude of climate change
experienced today and contextualises these two pathways.