Healthy Ageing in Residential Places
Principal Investigator: Dr. Pat Armstrong (York University)
About the study
The World Health Organization defines active ageing as allowing “people to realize their potential for physical, social, and mental well-being throughout the life course and to participate in society, while providing them with adequate protection, security and care when they need”. Most government and community approaches focus mainly on keeping people out of long-term residential care, even though many people continue to live in these places now and will do so in the future. Equally important, little attention has been paid to the ageing labour force in long-term residential care. Moreover, although long-term residential care is mainly care for women by women, research on what this means for the health of staff and residents is virtually absent.
Based on a broad view of health that includes mental, physical, emotional, social and spiritual aspects, we seek to identify healthy ageing strategies for long-term residential care that allow both staff and residents to live better, and perhaps longer, more fulfilling lives. Such strategies also have the potential to save money by reducing the amount of medical and other care required for both residents and staff. Central to the proposed international project are comparative, collaborative, case studies lead by experienced national teams that will offer detailed information on physical, economic, environmental, social, and behavioural conditions that shape and define healthy ageing for residents and staff in specific care facilities.
Our research process begins with the collection and analysis of existing statistical information and research reports at the national or jurisdictional level in Canada, the UK, Sweden and Norway to set the context for understanding specific residences. Our main technique is the application of a new method in this field – rapid site-switching ethnography. It is designed to capture the rich detail necessary to identify strategies for active, healthy ageing by bringing local and foreign researchers together to study two facilities in each country. They will observe staff and residents, provide the residents with cameras as a way of expressing their views, and interview both staff and residents about their experiences in facilities. This will bring fresh eyes to these sites while ensuring a local perspective.
Dr Braedley’s work on this project has focused on workers’ experiences of compassion fatigue and burnout, and their association with sexism and racism in the workplace. Working with Dr. Braedley on this research are Anna Przednowek and Prince Owusu.
This study is funded by CIHR and the European Research Area on Ageing
