1 / 17

Understanding Well-being as a Means of Empowering Older people

Understanding Well-being as a Means of Empowering Older people. Phil Noone Programme Director Lecturer NUIG. Introduction.

tablita-lee
Download Presentation

Understanding Well-being as a Means of Empowering Older people

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Understanding Well-being as a Means of Empowering Older people Phil Noone Programme Director Lecturer NUIG

  2. Introduction • In Ireland, 11.3% of the population is aged 65 years and over ( Central Statistics Office 2004), with a higher proportion, 13.14% living in the Western Health Board Region. This is projected to increase to 16.6% in 2011.

  3. Therefore • Demographic changes • Policy chances • Health care expenditure • And the wishes of older people to live in their own homes and be empowered to live independently and with dignity make the study of well-being timely.

  4. This Study Aim: To gain understanding of how older people experience well-being in their own social contexts Sample: 23 older people, purposeful sample, who live in a community setting Date Collection: Semi-structured interviews Analysis: Thematic analysis

  5. Findings Well-being emerged as Connectedness • Connectedness to place • Connectedness to people • Connectedness to life

  6. Connectedness to Place A strong connectedness to place was evident which strongly influenced feelings of well-being BORN, BRED AND REARED HERE “I was bred, born and reared here and I’d be going along the road and I’d be watching the lambeen’s to come of the fields” LOOKING “I like to sit outside the dark in the frost and I love the stars.. Power of nature…marvellous, marvellous..

  7. Connectedness to Place WATCHING • “.. And the summer it’s lovely.. We sit in the summer and watch the swallows coming and going.. I like to watch them and they always return to the sheds below.. I love to sit out there and watch them and they take no notice of me” • “oh the birds, the birds and I always feed the birds in the morning – it’s the first thing I do when I get up…”

  8. Connectedness to Place GOING HOME • “Its great.. I never had a house in England and here it’s a happy house .. We’re quiet happy here and its all right” BACK AND ORE • “before we got this house we were back and ore from England” • “ I was reared on the road and I spent a long time on the road and we were happy – they were happy happy times”

  9. Connectedness to People Family, social roles and relationships played a big part in well-being for older people NEEDING EACH OTHER • “people had time for each other” • “you’d be short of sugar and you’d go up for tea and they’d come down for something else and that the way it was” • “we’d good neighbours and we needed each other”

  10. Connectedness to People SENSE OF DUTY • “we were all sending money home” • “we’d send a pound each, five of us and I sent that every week untill I got married” BONDING • “ever one of them knows me”

  11. Connectedness to Life Most frequently demonstrated in accounts of determination to live and ability to adapt to changing circumstances DETERMINATION “don’t pity yourself” “but you have to get on with it” “I’d say its up to the people themselves” “it means everything to me to be able to get up in the morning and go out there”

  12. Connectedness to Life RESILIENCE • “If it’s a hard one don’t lie down, keep fighting” • “with the sticks I manage”

  13. Facilitating Factors of Well-being Being empowered to: • Be independent – not dependant • Access resources- information, entitlements, money, housing improvements etc. • Get about – transport • Meet people, be valued and be part of community life

  14. Factors Inhibiting Well-being Disempowered by: • Vulnerability • Poverty • Loneliness • Violence • Bureaucracy • Inequity • Access

  15. “LIVING MONDAY TO FRIDAYS” Lady with arthritis, aged 68years Empowerment and disempowerment co-existing together within well-being “and when there’s a bank holiday there’s no centre.. I don’t like Saturday and Sunday any more cause there’s no activity or nothing gong on.. Long boring days and I like it when the week starts again .. I hate bank holidays its like everything else the cycle going around and everything going around in a circle.. And I live from Thursday to Monday and Monday to Thursday..”P13.11.

  16. Linked to Antonovsky (1979) Sense of Coherence: • Comprehensibility • Manageability • Meaningfulness Unraveling the concept of well-being and incorporating empowerment strategies within Antonovsky’s framework, has the potential to enable older people to increase control over their own lives, their health and well-being.

  17. Conclusion “Man does not cease to play because he grows old, man grows old because he ceases to play” George Bernard Shaw

More Related