Using narratives in assessments of older people

Narrative is a story that has characters, episodes, imagery, a setting, plots, themes and often follows the traditional model of a story with a beginning, middle and end. This guide looks at how using narratives can improve assessments of older people; the differences and similarities with lifestory work; the limitations: and the role of narratives in improving outcomes

The lifelong learning of older people using social care services: rhetoric and realities

A plethora of government policies impacting on older people in the UK assert a paradigmatic shift towards their engagement with public services. User involvement is integral to increasing personalisation of care services where older people are expected to direct their own care through individualised budgets through a transformational environment. Disciplines within lifelong learning, particularly educational gerontology, has given rise to debates about the purpose and meaning of learning in later life. There is however, relative under-theorisation and a lack of empirical research into the lifelong learning needs, opportunities and experiences of those older people using social care services particularly in relation to the skills and knowledge they might need to capitalise on, to achieve more person-centred support. Convergence of the lifelong learning agenda with social policy and social care therefore has potential through increasing interrelated and overlapping activity in policy and practice. Drawing on Habermas’s two paradigms of strategy-orientated and individual-orientated analysis embedded in his theory of communicative action, this study explored both structural constraints and tensions arising from policy imperatives in relation to the day-to-day realities of older people using social care. Documentary analysis of four key policies and in-depth interviews with twenty older people enabled the phenomenon of learning and participation to be examined from different perspectives within a qualitative framework. Findings indicated that older people have sophisticated desires around the themes of independence, dependence and interdependence and that learning opportunities are essential to effective brokerage of appropriate services. Problematisation of policy concepts around self-directed care also indicated that the potential for empowerment of older people within their relationships with care professionals might be enhanced through engaging with different pedagogies. Recommendations are made for finding mechanisms in care settings that engage with learning to improve the quality of responses to older people

Where is the love? Promoting the inclusion of sexuality; sexual and gender identities and intimacies in care settings for older people

By invitation to the first national conference on sexuality and intimacy in later life: Towards a national policy framework hosted by the Right Hon. Anthony Agius Decelis, Parliamentary Secretary for Persons with Disability and Active Ageing, MALT

"Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink”: the constant conundrum of older peoples care

A contribution to the Middlesex multidisciplinary conference on Water which looked at the debates from a health and social care perspective concerning the quality of care in relation to the basic commodities of nutrition, fluid and compassionate practice

Rhetoric or reality: examining discourses within public policy on the the participation, involvement and lifelong learning of older people using social care services through documentary analysis

A plethora of UK key government policies all cite quality of life, social inclusion and independence as paramount considerations for working with older people using social care. Based on specific areas of the authors doctoral research, this poster illustrates how drawing on discourse theory informed documentary analysis of public policies as a means of analysing these complex phenomena and to illuminate how language and symbolic media are employed within government policies to describe, represent, represent and interpret these issues. It reflects on how discursive action is embedded within broader frameworks of understanding, communicating and interacting with older people’s involvement and participation in social care services. Understanding discursive practices through documentary analysis of the policies concerned in turn provided a resource for considering and enacting the potential for change in social work practice. In both the broader context and at the individual level, the findings were used to generate alternative or new meanings that help to straddle interactions between social care. The challenges of implementing the research method used, particularly in stablising policy data for analysis, is also considered, particularly in relation to how effective this approach is for unmasking policy assumptions and in drawing out practical implications for social work practice combined with other empirical approaches

Learning in later life: challenges for social work and social care

Within the UK and Europe, government legislation and policies concerned with demography have asserted a paradigmatic shift towards the increased engagement of older people with public services. The philosophy of user involvement and co-production within these contexts has become integral to finding ways in which to improve the wellbeing of older people and their experiences of ageing well. Whilst this area has been steadily emerging within the educational field in relation to the lifelong learning of older people, there has been a relative under-theorization and a lack of empirical research however into the lifelong learning needs, opportunities and experiences of those older people using social care who are typically marginalized from these debates and developments. This book address this gap by paying specific attention to examining what opportunities might be present within care services and public services in general for older people using social care to capitalize on the skills and knowledge they might need to achieve more person-centred support. Through developing a debate and argument for the convergence of the lifelong learning agenda with social policy and social care, its core argument focusses on the challenge of sustainability of the care and support of older people and how social care should engage more meaningfully with concepts such as social capital and the challenges associated with achieving a genuine co-productive approach towards the quality of experience of older people using social care. This book will be an essential read for professionals working with older people in health and social care, as well as those engaged with gerontology and ageing studies in education and practice. Contents: Introduction; Theories of learning and pedagogies: an introduction to key concepts; Contemporary challenges for social work and social care in supporting older people; Learning in later life: policy perspectives; Theories of learning in later life; Conceptualizing lifelong learning within social care: creating a framework for practice; Learning opportunities and learning experiences when using social care: findings from an empirical research study; Co-producing learning for professional education: two case studies; Some challenge of researching lifelong learning in later life; Developing professional knowledge and skills and expertise: challenges for practitioners; Final reflections; References; Index