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Improving the provision of information about assistive technology for older people: summary of research
- Authors:
- WRIGHT Fay, MCCREADIE Claudine, TINKER Anthea
- Publisher:
- University of London. Kings College. Institute of Gerontology
- Publication year:
- 2005
- Pagination:
- 57p.
- Place of publication:
- London
The importance of assistive technology (AT) in helping older people maintain independence is increasingly recognised in policy. The piece of research, looked at an important corollary of this development - the provision of relevant and appropriate information about AT. The research involved mapping both AT and information sources, focus groups with 28 users aged 75 and over and 12 carers, interviews with 40 professionals and information providers and a postal questionnaire to 131 care home managers (response rate of 45%). The findings point to the large volume of available information, but suggest that there are problems in identifying needs and in accessing all necessary information. Professionals share these problems and organisational issues impact on professional capacity to provide satisfactory information. The situation in care homes appears ambiguous in terms of responsibility for AT provision for residents and hence for information. The researchers concluded that there is considerable scope for improving both access to information and the design of that information. They also concluded that there are terminology issues that need addressing in further research.
Continuing to pay: the consequences for family caregivers of an older person's admission to a care home
- Author:
- WRIGHT Fay
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 34(2), June 2000, pp.191-205.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Discusses the reasons why caregiving in the community had ended for a sample of dependent older people, two-thirds of whom had dementia. Comparisons are made between the situation of a spouse caring for a partner and a daughter or son caring for a parent in a separate household. Spouses in the study had often sustained a greater burden before caregiving collapsed than had daughters or sons. They were less likely, however, to have had support from the home care service. When caregiving in the community ended and the dependent older person entered a care home, family caregivers themselves often had a financial price to pay. Currently spouses have a legal liability to contribute to a partner's care costs. Because of the UK's means-testing rules, daughters and sons were often penalised because a parent's assets that they might have inherited had to be used to meet the care home costs.
Difficult to let sheltered housing
- Authors:
- TINKER Anthea, WRIGHT Fay, ZEILIG Hannah
- Publisher:
- Age Concern
- Publication year:
- 1995
- Pagination:
- 174p.,tables,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Looks at why some sheltered housing is becoming difficult to let.
Still caring
- Authors:
- WRIGHT Fay, ALISON Virginia
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 22.8.91, 1991, pp.18-19.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
Reports on research carried out by Age Concern and the Spastics Society into older people caring for an adult disabled child.
What is the extra in extra care housing?
- Authors:
- WRIGHT Fay, et al
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 40(7), October 2010, pp.2239-2254.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Key findings from a multidisciplinary study of 10 extra care schemes for older people are highlighted. It suggests that the absence of a clear national definition of extra care makes it difficult for older people, their relatives and social workers to decide whether an extra care scheme is appropriate. Results revealed that only a minority provided an optional communal cooked lunch. A common problem was high care staff turnover so that temporary agency staff often had little idea of what an extra care scheme should provide. Although the tenants interviewed were largely satisfied with the care, some were distressed by carers' attitudes. Although assessment for an extra care place was based on the amount of paid care an older person had at home, this was unsound as it was common for care needs to decline in a scheme's improved physical environment. Building design, however, did not always take account of declining strength and poor mobility. Main scheme entrances were often difficult for some tenants to operate and were a barrier to leaving the house.
Older and colder: the views of older people experiencing difficulties keeping warm in winter
- Author:
- WRIGHT Fay
- Publisher:
- Help the Aged
- Publication year:
- 2004
- Pagination:
- 60p.
- Place of publication:
- London
The report seeks to examine the views, attitudes, perceptions and behaviour of older people who are in fuel poverty or who are concerned about heating their homes. The study offers an important new perspective on what should be done to ensure that older people in the UK live in warm homes during the winter months.
Some social consequences of remodelling English sheltered housing and care homes to ‘extra care’
- Authors:
- WRIGHT Fay, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 29(1), January 2009, pp.135-153.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Across the United Kingdom, new build and remodelled ‘extra care’ schemes are being developed in many areas on the assumption that they offer older people with care needs an alternative to residential care. This paper reports an evaluation by a multi-disciplinary team of 10 extra-care schemes remodelled from sheltered housing or residential care units. The evaluation audited buildings and identified social and architectural problems. No two schemes in the sample were alike; some aimed for a dependency balance and others set a dependency threshold for admission. The three criteria used for assessing eligibility were the number of paid care hours the older person had at home, their property status and the type of disability. This article focuses on the wide variation in assessing eligibility for an extra-care place and on some social consequences of remodelling. A number of tenants remained in situ during the remodelling process in six of the schemes. Building professionals were unanimous that retaining some tenants on site caused significant development delays and increased the remodelling costs. There was also a social price to pay. ‘Old’ tenants resented their scheme changing into extra care and were hostile towards ‘new’ tenants who had obvious needs for support. In some extra-care schemes, ‘old’ tenants were refusing to participate in meals and all social activities.
Improving the provision of information about assistive technology for older people
- Authors:
- MCCREADIE Claudine, WRIGHT Fay, TINKER Anthea
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Assistive Technologies, 1(1), October 2007, pp.33-41.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
The importance of assistive technology (AT) in helping older people maintain independence is increasingly recognised in policy. This article reports on a piece of research, funded by the Helen Hamlyn Foundation, that looked at the provision of relevant and appropriate information about AT. The research involved mapping both AT and information sources, focus groups with 28 users aged 75 and over and 12 carers, interviews with 40 professionals and information providers and a postal questionnaire to 131 care home managers (response rate of 45%). The findings point to the large volume of information, but suggest that there are problems in identifying needs and in accessing all necessary information. The situation in care homes appears ambiguous in terms of responsibility for AT provision for residents and hence for information. The researches concluded that there is considerable scope for improving both access to information and the design of that information. They also concluded that there are terminology issues that need addressing in further research.
Explaining about - advocacy and care home residents
- Author:
- WRIGHT Fay
- Journal article citation:
- Working with Older People, 9(1), March 2005, pp.9-12.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Explains how advocacy can empower care home residents and how these services are currently provided, and argues for better funding. Also briefly reports on a pilot study of local Age Concern advocacy schemes funded under the Nuffield Foundation's small grants programme in the autumn of 2003. The study highted different advocacy service models, numbers of referrals, types of referrals and funding problems.
Old and cold: older people and policies failing to address fuel poverty
- Author:
- WRIGHT Fay
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 38(5), October 2004, pp.488-503.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Research, funded by the British Gas Help the Aged Partnership and carried out by the Institute of Gerontology, King's College London, explored the multidimensional issues of fuel poverty. A sample of older homeowners and private renters living in England, Scotland and Wales were interviewed in the Spring of 2003 to explore their experiences of keeping their homes warm in the preceding winter. It was found that almost half of the sample for whom full information was available were in fuel poverty. Government schemes failed to address some important issues. Grants were only available to those with “passport benefits”, excluding those who had minimal occupational pensions. Although most respondents had central heating, it was often old and ineffective, yet grants were not available to modernize them. Government schemes did not extend to paying for external and internal insulation for solid wall properties yet many older people live in such property. Several older people lived in rural areas not connected to mains gas. As mains gas currently provides the cheapest fuel, they faced high bills, yet government policies do not address the differential fuel costs in these areas. The culture of many older people in the study contributed to their living in cold homes. They lived frugally and usually turned heating off in daylight hours during winter. It was also a common practice to sleep in an unheated bedroom during winter and to keep the window open at night. Such practices are acknowledged to be unhealthy.