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Understanding care homes: a research and development perspective
- Editors:
- FROGGATT Katherine, DAVIES Sue, MEYER Julienne, (eds.)
- Publisher:
- Jessica Kingsley
- Publication year:
- 2009
- Pagination:
- 272p.
- Place of publication:
- London
Understanding Care Homes draws together a range of research and development initiatives that emphasise the importance of partnership working, and of enabling older people and their families to maintain the highest quality of life. The book is divided into three sections, each investigating how research and development can be undertaken to provide better care for the individual resident and their family, to enhance care at the organisational level and to develop the care home's relationships within the wider community. By addressing the concerns of residents and their families as well as those of carers and home managers, this book identifies how the generation of new knowledge through research can bring about real changes in care provision.
How does the rhetoric of 'user participation' in research apply to older people
- Authors:
- BOYCE Melanie, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 27(1), 2009, pp.55-63.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
In recent years there has been a government emphasis on the involvement of service users and carers in the planning and shaping of services. Different research initiatives involving older people are highlighted. It is suggested that training in research skills for older people is crucial to advance their active and meaningful participation. The narrow range of involvement by older people in research is considered in relations to both policy and practice.
Using photography to understand change and continuity in the history of residential care for older people
- Authors:
- ROLPH Sheena, JOHNSON Julia, SMITH Randall
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 12(5), December 2009, pp.421-439.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Between 1957 and 1961 British sociologist, Peter Townsend, visited173 local authority, voluntary and privately owned residential care homes for older people across England and Wales. As part of his research he took 100 photographs 33 of which are included in his book The Last Refuge. His original data are now deposited in the National Social Policy and Social Change Archive at the University of Essex. The authors have undertaken research, funded by the ESRC, revisiting Townsend’s work and some of the homes he studied in order to conduct an overtime comparison. In this paper the authors contextualise and analyse Townsend’s use of photographs, and explore the impact of his approach on their research, and the issues it raised for their photography. They argue that, although Townsend did not analyse his photographs, they were significant data for use in his arguments critiquing residential care. However they were a product of a different socio-historical context to that of the present study and as such posed considerable ethical and practical challenges when the authors attempted to use this aspect of his methodology for an overtime comparison. For example the authors’ freedom to photograph at will was heavily curtailed by issues of permission and consent. The authors argue that, despite the constraints, photography was an important part of their methodology, enabling comparisons and illuminating historical patterns in residential care for older people.
Older people as researchers – why not? An overview of a partnership project to train older people to be researchers
- Authors:
- MUNN-GIDDINGS Carol, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Working with Older People, 13(4), December 2009, pp.16-19.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
This article describes a unique project that has equipped older people with the necessary research skills to find information for themselves, giving them the confidence to directly shape local services. Funded by Skills for Care East in February 2007 for delivery of training from June to August of that year, the project trained a group of 15 older people, nine women and six men aged 60 to 80, to become researchers in health and social care issues, stepping beyond their tradition consultation role. This group attended one or two days training per week, for a total of fifteen days, at the end of which a formal evaluation was carried out. All of the 12 participants that completed the course reported they had learnt a lot on research matters and on health and social care issues in general, as applicable to older people. Although confident that they could contribute to research projects in future, they felt ongoing support would be required to develop and consolidate their skills. Most expressed a wish for a follow-up course, one that explored a particular approach in more depth. The project concluded that the potential for group members to continue their learning, and apply it in a practical way, became very apparent.