scholarly journals Towards an ‘active caring community’ in Brussels

Author(s):  
An-Sofie Smetcoren ◽  
Liesbeth De Donder ◽  
Daan Duppen ◽  
Nico De Witte ◽  
Olivia Vanmechelen ◽  
...  

Chapter 6 addresses the question of how an age-friendly urban environment can support frail older people to ‘age in place’. To address this issue, the chapter presents findings from a study which assessed the value of an ‘Active Caring Community’ project in supporting frail older adults living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Brussels, Belgium. The project was aimed at creating a community which supports the process of ageing in place; where residents of the community know and help each other; where meeting opportunities are developed; and where individuals and their informal caregivers receive care and support from motivated professionals. The authors highlight the importance of the social dimension of the environment, and discuss a range of related opportunities and constraints which may affect older people’s frailty.

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 700-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
JANE M. CRAMM ◽  
HANNA M. VAN DIJK ◽  
ANNA P. NIEBOER

ABSTRACTThe preference of older people when it comes to ageing in place may be modified by levels of frailty. The aim of this research is to characterise the relationship between frailty and ageing in place, and to identify differences in neighbourhood characteristics supporting ageing in place missed by frail and non-frail older people. A concurrent nested mixed-methods approach was used. For quantitative evaluation, a sample of 945 independently living older adults residing in four districts of Rotterdam were asked to complete a questionnaire in 2013 (response rate = 62%; N = 558). In addition, 32 interviews were conducted with frail and non-frail older people. Results showed that gender, age and especially frailty were related to missed neighbourhood characteristics. People displayed awareness of their increasing frailty and often acknowledged that it increased the need for neighbourhood characteristics enabling them to age in place. We can conclude that dependence on neighbourhoods varies with frailty status. This relationship is dynamic; with frailty, older people become more dependent on their neighbourhood. However, expectations regarding neighbourhood characteristics seem to dissipate with advanced age and increasing frailty.


2021 ◽  
Vol 167 ◽  
pp. 120678
Author(s):  
Roger Andre Søraa ◽  
Pernille Nyvoll ◽  
Gunhild Tøndel ◽  
Eduard Fosch-Villaronga ◽  
J. Artur Serrano

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (8) ◽  
pp. 1474-1482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacy Torres

AbstractObjectivesWhile older adults living alone face challenges to maintaining social ties, elders in urban areas also have unique opportunities for daily socializing that can buffer against loneliness.MethodDrawing on 5 years of ethnographic fieldwork among elders in New York City, this study presents empirical insights into the development of supplementary neighborhood-based networks of support for older people living alone and vulnerable to isolation.ResultsThis study finds that elders who lived alone, without close kin, engaged in daily gossip about other older people they encountered as regulars in local eateries. Despite its negative reputation, gossip helped them connect and access less conventional social support close to home. The majority resisted formal organizations, such as churches or senior centers, and thus their interactions in public venues served as an important source of social involvement. In line with Gluckman’s argument (1963), gossip betrayed emotional intimacy and caretaking that connected people who could have fallen off the social radar.DiscussionHigher rates of divorce and lifelong singlehood, coupled with increased longevity, will compel greater numbers of older adults to construct alternative support networks. My findings suggest that more will draw these connections from unconventional venues such as neighborhood public places.


1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Elman

AbstractOlder people became a highly visible force in the American politics of the 1930s. The Townsend organisation mobilised one tenth of the U.S. elderly population prior to their direct representation in the polity as an interest group. This article utilises several theoretical social movement models to analyse how and why mobilisation occurred. It demonstrates that many factors, including phenomena associated with the social dimension of age, influenced the mechanisms of mobilisation and the movement's shape. Characteristics of this cohort of older people, including its size, life expectancy, spatial distribution, shared traditions, and symbolic frameworks were conducive to club formation and mobilisation. The period event of the Depression also triggered collective action, by exacerbating trends of changing old-age institutional supports. But the organisation expanded most where it channelled inducements to participants and evoked the cohorts' symbolic frameworks and ideals. Mobilisation also occurred within a political environment, the national stage of U.S. politics, where non-represented interest groups (such as elderly people) find it difficult to receive benefits.


2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-51
Author(s):  
Braam Lowies ◽  
Robert Brenton Whait ◽  
Kurt Lushington

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore older people’s intention to relocate from their primary homes. The study also seeks to understand the policy implications that such intentions may have. Design/methodology/approach This study employs a survey-based design via computer-aided telephone interviews (CATI). The CATI survey was employed to gather information on the behaviour of older people and whether differences exist by gender, age, health immigration status and financial knowledge. The survey-based design is triangulated with the literature on this topic area and policy issues. Findings The findings of the study suggest amongst others, that older South Australians overwhelmingly and significantly do not intend to move from their primary home and are content to age in place. This is particularly true as people reach the older stages of life. Originality/value The study enhances the understanding of the decision-making environment that older people are exposed to in contemplating relocation from the primary home. More specifically, it shows that factors stated in the literature that deemed to be of importance in the decision to relocate, has no significance in this study and that ageing in place should be used as a policy base.


Author(s):  
Betsy Seah ◽  
Wenru Wang

AbstractSalutogenesis introduces a paradigm that requires a perceptual change towards what creates health and how health can be facilitated. Removing the lens of pathogenesis, aging is an achievement to be embraced and older people are valued as assets for their wealth of experiences, resources, skills and knowledge. From the perspectives of older adults, the concept of healthy aging is multidimensional, comprising bio-psycho-social-spiritual health. Evidence shows that sense of coherence via resistance resources promotes health outcomes among older adults. However, very few works have attempted to operationalise the salutogenic theory to promote healthy aging among older community dwellers. This chapter provides a detailed description of the Salutogenic Healthy Aging Program Embracement (SHAPE) intervention for senior-only household dwellers. SHAPE represents an application of the salutogenic concepts: sense of coherence and resistance resources. SHAPE is an integrative person-centric multi-dimensional health resource program that employs an asset-based insight-oriented approach. Illustration of examples in which how the salutogenic concepts were operationalised in developing the SHAPE intervention approach, its content, activities and the conduction of the intervention are presented.


Sexualities ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 136346072093647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roos Pijpers

In the (near) future, a growing number of older LGBT people will ‘age in place’, receiving health and social care in their homes and wider ageing environments until a very advanced age. This article discusses the results of a survey research among 115 LGBT people aged 65 years and over who are ageing in place and who are weekly and monthly receivers of health and social care services, and follow-up interviews with 10 people. The research was situated in the Netherlands. The results show that older LGBT people’s experiences with ageing in place are related to differences in how ageing environments are able to accommodate LGBT lifestyles. The results further shed light on the meaning of receiving health and social care at home as an older LGBT person, and the ways in which LGBT life histories and identities are expressed in care relationships, both in verbal and in home-making practices. Finally, the results suggest that the links between older LGBT people and the wider LGBT community are vulnerable, and neighbourhood-based activities may not be sufficiently responsive to older LGBT people.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-304
Author(s):  
Tirso Duran-Badillo ◽  
Maria Aurelia Maldonado Vidales ◽  
Ma de la Luz Martínez Aguilar ◽  
Gustavo Gutierrez Sánchez ◽  
Hermelinda Ávila Alpirez

Objetivo: Conocer la relación entre el miedo a la muerte y calidad de vida de los adultos mayores. Material y Método: Estudio correlacional en adultos mayores. La muestra fue de 99 adultos mayores, se utilizó la Escala original de Collet-Lester de Miedo a la Muerte y al Proceso de Morir y el Cuestionario WHOQOL-BREF. Resultados: No se encontró relación en la escala global del miedo ante la muerte y el proceso de morir con la calidad de vida. Se observó relación negativa entre el miedo a la propia muerte y la dimensión física de la calidad de vida (p<.05) y en el miedo al propio proceso de morir con la dimensión ambiental de la calidad de vida (p<.05). Se encontró relación positiva entre el miedo a la muerte de los otros y la dimensión social de la calidad de vida (p<.05). Conclusiones: A menor miedo a la propia muerte mayor calidad de vida en la dimensión física, a menor miedo al propio proceso de morir mayor calidad de vida en la dimensión ambiental y a mayor miedo a la muerte de otras personas mayor calidad de vida en la dimensión social. Objective: Know the relationship between the fear of death and the quality of life ofolder adults.Materials and Method: Correlational study in older adults. The sample was 99 older adults. The original Collet-Lester Scale of Death Fear and the Dying Process and the WHOQOL-BREF Questionnaire were used.Results: No relationship found on the global scale of Death Fear and the Dying Process with the quality of life. A negative relationship was observed between the fear of own death and the physical dimension of the quality of life (p<.05), and the fear of the process of dying with the environmental dimension of quality of life (p<.05). Positive relationship was found between the fear of the death of others and the social dimension of quality of life (p <.05).Conclusions: A lesser fear of one's own death higher quality of life in the physical dimension, a lesser fear of the process of dying, greater quality of life in the environmental dimension and the greater the fear of the death of other people, the greater the quality of life in the social dimension.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S26-S26
Author(s):  
Kathy Black

Abstract The majority of Americans overwhelmingly prefer to age in place and in the communities in which they reside. Age-friendly communities support aging in place by focusing attention on features both inside and outside of the home. The global age-friendly community model provides a framework that requires assessing community-based older adults’ needs and preferences about, and developing subsequent action towards, features of the social, service and built environment including housing and transportation which are considered essential to aging successfully at home. This presentation discusses the intersect between research, policy and practice in an age-friendly community which utilized micro-level findings from older adults (n = 1, 172) to enact macro-level collaborations across local and statewide government and professional groups to facilitate aging in place across the domains of housing and transportation.


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