Battersby, Lupin

Canham, Sarah L.

Fang, Mei Lan

Ren, Tori Hui

Sixsmith, Andrew

Sixsmith, Judith

Woolrych, Ryan

The Gerontologist

Purpose of the Study: Home and community engagement are key contextual factors for aging well, particularly for older adults in vulnerable social positions. A community-based participatory action research project conducted in Western Canada examined how to best use the shared amenity spaces in a low-income seniors' apartment complex in order to connect services and programs with tenants and to provide opportunities for service providers and local stakeholders to build upon and create new relationships toward collaboration and service delivery. Design and Methods: Pre-move deliberative dialogue workshops (n = 4) were conducted with stakeholders (e.g., service providers, developers, and municipal government employees). Workshop participants (n = 24) generated ideas and plans on how physical and social environments can contribute to the social engagement of senior tenants. Results: Shared dialogue led to community investment and asset sharing by integrating the knowledge and experiences of multiple stakeholder groups into the planning process. This article highlights how collaborative planning approaches for the effective use of the social environment (e.g., social programming), within the physical environment (e.g., amenity and community spaces), can generate rich and illuminating data for informing enhancements in the social environment of apartment dwelling low-income seniors. Contextual challenges to service provision are discussed, including the need for communication about and coordination of on-site programming, culturally diverse and responsive programming, and longterm funding. Implications: Prolonging independent community living with the assistance of support services should be a goal to both delay premature relocation into institutional care and meet the preferences of older adults.</p

University of Dundee Online Publications

Contextual factors for aging well:Creating socially engaging spaces through the use of deliberative dialogues

Sarah L Canham

Mei Lan Fang

Lupin Battersby

Ryan Woolrych

Judith Sixsmith

Tori Hui Ren

Andrew Sixsmith

Crossref

Contextual Factors for Aging Well: Creating Socially Engaging Spaces Through the Use of Deliberative Dialogues

English

Purpose of the StudyHome and community engagement are key contextual factors for aging well, particularly for older adults in vulnerable social positions. A community-based participatory action research project conducted in Western Canada examined how to best use the shared amenity spaces in a low-income seniors’ apartment complex in order to connect services and programs with tenants and to provide opportunities for service providers and local stakeholders to build upon and create new relationships toward collaboration and service delivery.Design and MethodsPre-move deliberative dialogue workshops (n = 4) were conducted with stakeholders (e.g., service providers, developers, and municipal government employees). Workshop participants (n = 24) generated ideas and plans on how physical and social environments can contribute to the social engagement of senior tenants.ResultsShared dialogue led to community investment and asset sharing by integrating the knowledge and experiences of multiple stakeholder groups into the planning process. This article highlights how collaborative planning approaches for the effective use of the social environment (e.g., social programming), within the physical environment (e.g., amenity and community spaces), can generate rich and illuminating data for informing enhancements in the social environment of apartment dwelling low-income seniors. Contextual challenges to service provision are discussed, including the need for communication about and coordination of on-site programming, culturally diverse and responsive programming, and long-term funding.ImplicationsProlonging independent community living with the assistance of support services should be a goal to both delay premature relocation into institutional care and meet the preferences of older adults

Heriot Watt Pure

http://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/ws/files/17468396/Final_Contextual_Factors_for_Aging_Well_19June2017.pdf

Contextual factors for aging well:Creating socially engaging spaces through the use of deliberative dialogues

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of Dundee Online Publications

Crossref

University of Dundee Online Publications

Heriot Watt Pure

Heriot Watt Pure