I am a Research Intern, moving into Applied Research. I attended this workshop at the end of 2024 to discover current debates within the field of research with older people, and to gain awareness of scholars working in this area. There were many presentations during this full day, hosted by sociologists working at Liverpool University. The day was split into five themes; in this second part of my blog, I share the last two themes with you.
4. Representing Frailty. Speakers: Anthea Innes, Anne Barrett, Brianna Soulie, Hope Mimbs, Zheng Fee Mai.
Brianna Soulie, Hope Mimbs, Anne Barrett – How does US tech portray older people?
Technology is being presented as a solution to the challenges of ageing. These speakers presented their analysis of 6 policy documents to reveal a discourse built on these themes:
a. Older adults characterised as burdens with increasing frailty, costs, and emotional strain
b. Technology will reduce ‘burdens associated with old age’ – no evidence of reducing costs
c. Ageing in place – households are the only settings where technology is being installed
d. Technological Surveillance and Monitoring – are older people consenting?
e. Technology could reduce human contact – but robots are not yet able to provide personal care
f. ‘technology can save the day’
Zheng Fee Mai: Is Frailty a contested concept, ascribed condition, or consigned state?
This speaker is examining ageing with Chinese speaking communities in England. This community is being influenced by modern Chinese media which is marginalising older people (they are not consumers, and they require care). He noted that common themes are physical weakness and chronic illness. He notes that translation between English and Chinese can be problematic as dementia is often translated as the linguistic characters ‘old and stupid’. There is a reluctance to engage with medics in England, fear of stigma. There is also a return to older remedies, relying on family and communities, concentrating on upholding their own health with activities and changes to diet.
5. Interventions in Frailty. Victoria Cluley (chair) Sue Egersdorff, Lauren Griffith,
Sue Egersdorff Ready Generations.
She started a Day Nursery in the heart of a Care Village, providing authentic Intergenerational Co-existing and Co-Creation (letting children and older people take charge). She says that young Children do not see AGE and these interactions create ‘lifelong learning across the life-course’. She is a charity founder – ‘fed up of the status quo’ and thinks that being a fixer is insufficient.
Friedrich Froebel – kindergarten – ‘access outdoors, talk with others, play and time to play’ 1782 – 1852.
This scheme forms friendships between people over the age of 85 who have incredible capacity to teach with children who have endless capacity to learn. ‘Acting out and trialling things.’ The set-up has formed a moral tribe to which all members belong, equally. They have created a place which is shared and where every member belongs.
She spoke about Motivation, Intensity, Persistence; working to address many social issues. Sue has a background as a professional in early years provision. They use the term ‘GrandFriends’ to refer to the older people. When older people die, they make teddy bears out of their clothes and call the bear after the deceased person. Children are very accepting of death and are not scared of it as it is part of their natural experiences. Sue assured the audience that at no point were parents concerned about their children being harmed by this knowledge, it has encouraged the youngsters to be compassionate and take care of the older group of people.
McMaster University – Lauren Griffith ‘PACIFIC’
Their research considers the consequences of loss of information between hospital acute care and communities. The aim is to create interventions which help increase quality of life for ‘post-acute care’ patients. This is a huge project involving 30 or more academics to develop software in conjunction with this specific population. Griffith gave a broad outline of the project and listed all the various academics involved, a mixture of sociologists and medics.
PACIFIC – Patient Portal: Jasdeep Dhillon, Labarge Centre for Mobility in Ageing
This is the technological part of the above programme. It aims to create a new interface which is easier to use, and is working with AGE-WELL, a technology innovator in Canada. It is aiming to provide early awareness of frailty, to instigate support and access to support at an earlier point in time. They note that ‘minority populations are more likely to experience frailty’. They have completed a systematic review of existing patient portals.
Their aim is to broaden the use of Digital Health Information.
Co-production in PACIFIC– Anthea Innes, Jackie Bosch Gilbrea Centre for Studies in Ageing
The co-production element is based on a Research Advisory Board made up of 20 members, with 5 older people (from the patient group).
They needed to design a logo, so prior to any consultation they proposed six designs, none of which found favour, so this task now needs to be done again. Is this right way to approach co-design?
The next element is to construct a Needs Assessment to ensure that any new portal is fulfilling the needs of the patient group. This means a lot of discussion about specific wording and domains.
Dr Rebecca Woods is a Research Assistant with the Community & Primary Care Research Group, Faculty of Health.