Introduction

The Changing Ageing Partnership (Cap) in Northern Ireland was established to help place older people’s voices at the heart of policy development. Making research relevant to the needs of society and translating the findings of research into policy and practice are challenges shared by all working in the field of ageing. This paper describes Cap’s development and evolution over the past three years. It provides an insight into the strategies used by Cap to stimulate interest in ageing related research across Queen’s University Belfast and in enabling older people and others to be active participants in the research process. The paper concludes by highlighting the challenges that remain.

The Atlantic Philanthropies

Cap was established in December 2005 and is funded until 2010 by The Atlantic Philanthropies; an organisation founded by an Irish American Charles ‘Chuck’ Feeney. In a biography entitled ‘the billionaire who wasn’t’ Conor O’Clery (2007) tells of how Feeney secretly transferred a financial fortune made through duty free shops to The Atlantic Philanthropies in 1984. Ageing is one of four priority areas of work for Atlantic Philanthropies and on their website they explain the aim of that work as follows.

“Through our Ageing Programme, we seek to bring about lasting change in the lives of older adults, with a special emphasis on those who are disadvantaged and vulnerable because of ageism, poverty or poor health. We aim to help transform how ageing is viewed within society and improve the way older persons are treated by society. We focus on ageing in Bermuda, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the United States.” http://atlanticphilanthropies.org/ageing

The Cap Partners

Cap brings together three organisations: Age Concern Help the Aged, Northern Ireland; the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) and the Institute of Governance at Queen’s University Belfast. Cap’s vision, encapsulated in the strap line: ‘older, louder, stronger’, is of a strong, informed voice capable of challenging attitudes and approaches to ageing. This vision is realised by harnessing the synergy of the combined workings of the three partners, each of whom has distinct roles and responsibilities within the partnership. Age Concern Help the Aged is focused on equality policy development with older people and public bodies. The Workers’ Educational Association provides leadership and advocacy training to build skills amongst older people and groups and Queen’s University is focused on strengthening the evidence base for the development of policy responsive to the needs of older people.

Recruitment of staff to Cap began in June 2006 with the appointment of development officers at Age Concern and Help the Aged and a Cap research manager at Queen’s University Belfast and concluded in November 2006, when the Workers’ Educational Association recruited a Cap development officer. In addition to the four core team members other staff in each of the partner organisations feed into the network. For example the project is governed by a Cap Strategy group which meets approximately four times per year and is compromised of Professor Sally Wheeler Director of the Institute Governance at Queen’s along with the directors of Age Concern Help the Aged and the WEA. Communication and PR for Cap is handled by Age Concern Help the Aged. All members of the Cap partnership come together twice a year for a meeting facilitated by an external consultant. The purpose of these meetings is to maximise the added value of the partnership by reviewing and developing our integrated work plan.

Cap Research

The Cap research programme is located within the Institute of Governance in the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast. The Institute of Governance was established within the University to act as a vehicle for the promotion of interdisciplinary research. Sally Wheeler is a corporate lawyer, I am a nurse and other colleagues in the Institute include criminologists, sociologists and economists.

The Institute of Governance and the School of Law have a long history of research; however in June 2006 the focus on age related research was a completely new area of work. Starting from a base line of zero was a daunting prospect. In an effort to stimulate interest and whet appetites our first step was to advertise a small research seed grant programme open to people across the University to carry out research on issues related to ageing. The choice of subject was left open although drawing on the interests of partners proposals focused on housing and intergenerational issues were encouraged. In September 2006 four grants of £10,000 each were awarded to researchers from architecture, pharmacy, politics and the institute of child care research (ICCR). The ICCR had seen the advertisement for seed grants but quickly dismissed it assuming that it was related to people working in the area of gerontology. A conversation with the director resulted in a proposal for a systematic review of children’s perception of ageing and older people being submitted and funded. A PhD studentship to build on this work was obtained from the Department of Education and Learning (DEL) in 2008. Architect Dr Karim Hadjri carried out a study on housing design, which also resulted in a DEL studentship for Nicholas Humes and subsequently enabled Karim to become PI on Cogworks: the cognitive health and well being hub one of the 2009 MRC Life Long Health and Well Being Research Networks. Professor Carmel Hughes from Pharmacy was the first of the four studies to complete her research project into mediation in nursing homes (paper from Professor Hughes in this issue).

Building on the success of the Cap seed grants three further rounds of funding have resulted in a total of 22 studies being funded (the average grant is £10k). Papers from a number of people involved in these studies are included in this edition of Generation Review: Lisa Glennon and Brice Dickson from the School of Law share findings from their study on ‘Age discrimination'; Karola Dillenburger from the School of education writes with Lynn Kerr about findings from their study on the needs of older carers of adult children with disabilities and Katherine Appleton and Jayne Woodside discuss their study of fruit and vegetable consumption amongst older people.

As Cap has grown and developed the impact of the partnership on the research process has become more apparent and protocol and procedures around commissioning have evolved. Researchers must now demonstrate involvement of older people in all stages of the research process; all Cap partners are involved in selection of studies and retired academic and Cap spokesperson on equality Dr Paul Hudson participated in the 2008 selection panel.

Cap funded research on ageing is now taking place across the University in anthropology, architecture, criminology, drama, law, medicine, nursing, politics, psychology, sociology and social work. The networking and relationship building between researchers has resulted in a number of collaborative proposals; for example three Cap researchers and I are members of the Cogworks research network.

Nine Cap funded studies have been completed and are available to download at : www.changingageing.org/research/seedgrants/completedstudies

Research training and capacity building is a core part of our work and a key component of that are the Cap PhD studentships. Three studentships have been funded by Atlantic Philanthropies and three by the Department of Education and Learning (DEL). Brendan Sturgeon (politics) has just submitted his thesis on antisocial behaviour and its impact on older people; Sarah Machnieskwi (sociology) is due to complete her study on zemiology/social harm theory in September; Nathan Emmerich (sociology) is entering the final year of his study on gerontology and medical ethics; Caoimhe McCutcheon (sociology) is currently in Zambia carrying out field work for her comparative study of ageing with Northern Ireland and Lyn Johnson (Institute of Childcare) is about to embark on fieldwork for her study on the impact of intergenerational programmes on community cohesion. Nick Humes has written about his study, computer-based tools for designers to improve decision making.

Older Louder and Stronger

The summer of 2006 and most of that first year at Cap was spent primarily on building relationships; getting to know the age sector and developing a profile of people involved in ageing related research across the University, on the island of Ireland and across the UK. It became apparent very early on that contrary to popular opinion there was in fact a lot of research on ageing going on across the University but that people were often not aware of what was happening outside their own groups/schools. In 2007 Cap research seminars were introduced in an attempt to promote greater awareness of the research that was taking place.

In June 2007 the first of many Cap research seminars was held in the institute of Governance. The speaker Dr John Copelton is senior careers adviser at Queen’s. John is passionate about active ageing and completed a PhD on the subject. In 2006 he obtained a Churchill fellowship to travel to the USA to explore initiatives on active ageing. John presented his research and outlined the plans for his visit to the USA and invited suggestions from the audience on what areas he should focus on. The participative style worked very well and people requested that he would return and share the findings from his trip. An engaging speaker and affable character John helped to set the tone for future Cap seminars. Research presented in a way that was accessible to non academics without loosing any of its scientific rigour. That first seminar attracted about 20 people drawn from amongst the Cap partners; PhD students and a few older people. Building on that initial success research seminars were held once a fortnight through autumn 2007 and spring of 2008. The seminars had proved to be so popular with the people attending and with researchers keen to have a vehicle to share their work with others that in the autumn of 2008 their frequency was increased to weekly; with an average attendance of 35 -40 people.

It is difficult to describe a Cap seminar to other people; it is something that has to be experienced to be appreciated. The seminars run from 12.15 until 2.30. The event starts with lunch this is always a light hot fork lunch followed by tea/coffee and a tray bake. It is a Cap tradition that people sit around tables for lunch as this helps to create a relaxed atmosphere and is conducive to people networking. Each person is greeted as they enter the building by Deaglan Coyle events officer in the School of Law and given a printed name badge (large print). The participants at research seminars included representatives from housing; health; social services; council; residential care; U3A; policy makers and older people. Over the last year Attracta Cosgrove, Cap development officer at WEA, and I have been working with a core group of older people who have attended a number of the seminars to get their views and ideas on how to improve the events. One consequence of that work is that group affectionately referred to as the Cap12 are now running the events. This role ranges from facilitating the seminars to meeting people as they enter the building and introducing them to others at lunch.

Feedback and evaluation is an ongoing part of the Cap programme, below are some things that people have said about the benefit of the Cap research events:

“it is lovely to meet with young people in a meaningful way.”

“you are not patronised”

“I have learnt so much”

“I feel more confident now”

“coming here is so good for you – you know it is better than any treatment the doctor could give you.”

In June of this year a Cap research launch was attended by over 100 people of whom about 70 were older people. This five fold increase has been gradual but constant and has been made possible because of the synergy in the partnership with the aged sector and the WEA.

Age Awareness Week

Age Awareness Week is a key date in the Cap calendar. The week is built around International Day of Older People (October 1st) and aims to celebrate the diversity of older people across Northern Ireland. The week has grown from very humble beginnings in 2006, to a major event with billboard campaign and a weeklong programme of events. The theme for Age Awareness Week 2009 is ‘representation’. As part of the week, older people’s groups, statutory and voluntary organisations are holding a range of events across Northern Ireland. These events range from simultaneous drama performances by older people across Northern Ireland organised by drama Spring Chickens to a one day intergeneration conference ‘safer communities’ organised by older people’s lobbying group the Age Sector Platform in partnership with the Community Safety Unit and Cap at Queen’s. Details on Age Awareness Week and other Cap strands is available on our website: http://www.changingageing.org/

Conclusions

Three years in and the Cap journey has been an eventful and challenging one. Much has been achieved in creating a dynamic research culture that is inclusive of older people; but we have a long way left to go in terms of translating research into policy and practice. Thirteen Cap funded studies will complete over the next 12 months and our key priority is to build on relationships established with policy makers and practitioners to help ensure that the research findings are reflected in priorities for the NI Assembly.

In September together with our colleagues from the Social Policy Ageing Research Centre (SPARC) in Trinity College we will host the first Cap/SPARC international research conference on ageing. http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/planningtogether/.