Introduction

Attention is currently focused on challenging stereotypes of growing older, and the negative assumptions that are made about older people’s capacity to be engaged in activities (Grenier, 2007). This development contrasts with another image of older people, that of frailty and passivity . There is a paradox, therefore, between these two perspectives, firstly that older people are active and able, and secondly that older people are dependant and vulnerable (Simms, 2004).

Both positions run the risk of under-exploring the views that older people themselves have of their response to the challenges of healthy living, which includes maintaining and developing participation and activity in different domains. These views would include identifying risks, developing strategies to respond to these, and the decisions arrived at about environmental adaptations and support needs. (Reed et al, 2004) The strategies that older people have developed, and the dynamics of this development are, however, under-explored , even within current gerontological research, which is frequently informed and shaped by deficit models of growing older.

Older people, therefore, have developed ways of responding to a range of challenges to their health and well-being, drawing on their own resources, and those of their families, friends, communities and services. In order for these to be used and developed effectively, we need to know more about them, and so this study has been developed with a number of older people and international researchers.

Aims

1. To explore the experiences of older people and their sense of developing healthy living.
2. To explore the nature of the challenges to healthy living that older people identify.
3. To investigate the strategies that they employ to respond to these perceived challenges.

Methods

The study will use Appreciative Inquiry (Reed, 2006) as the methodological basis for the study. Appreciative Inquiry is a ‘strengths based’ approach, which begins from an exploration and appreciation of the ways in which participants have acted positively in their lives. These issues play out in different ways across different cultures and countries, as service development has taken place against the background of different policy frameworks. In order to explore these processes, this study has identified a number of different international settings as follows:

• UK - welfare state structure and services
• Germany – voluntary sector/Church sector and services
• Australia – private sector and services
• South Africa – limited service development

Appreciative Inquiry focus groups will be held in each of these countries, and the data analysis will contribute towards a framework for international service and practice development.

The Research Team  

The study will be led from the UK , by Professor Jan Reed, Dr Glenda Cook, and Mrs Elsie Richardson and Audrey Lax (Older People’s Research Group).

The international partners are:

Germany – Dr Barbara Klein

Australia – Professor Wendy Moyle

South Africa – Sandra Marais

References

Grenier A (2007) Constructions of frailty in the English language, care practice and the lived experience Ageing & Society 27 , 425–445

Reed, J., Stanley , D. and Clarke, C. (2004) Health, Well-Being and Older People. Policy Press, Bristol .

Reed J (2006) Appreciative Inquiry: Research for change. Sage: Thousand Oaks , CA .

Simms, M. (2004) A theory of age exclusion through closure : ‘chronological age’ to ‘ clinical need’. Journal of Aging Studies, 18, 445–65.