Search

ABSTRACTBackground:In this paper, we report progress on "Neighborhoods: our people, our places" an international study about how people living with dementia interact with their neighborhoods. The ideas of social health and citizenship are drawn upon to contextualize the data and make a case for recognizing and understanding the strengths and agency of people with dementia. In particular, we address the lived experience of the environment as a route to better understanding the capabilities, capacities, and competencies of people living with dementia. In doing this, our aim is to demonstrate the contribution of social engagement and environmental support to social health., Methods: The study aims to "map" local spaces and networks across three field sites (Manchester, Central Scotland and Linkoping, Sweden). It employs a mix of qualitative and participatory approaches that include mobile and visual methods intended to create knowledge that will inform the design and piloting of a neighborhood-based intervention., Results: Our research shows that the neighborhood plays an active role in the lives of people with dementia, setting limits, and constraints but also offering significant opportunities, encompassing forms of help and support as yet rarely discussed in the field of dementia studies. The paper presents new and distinctive insights into the relationship between neighborhoods and everyday life for people with dementia that have important implications for the debate on social health and policy concerning dementia friendly communities., Conclusion: We end by reflecting on the messages for policy and practice that are beginning to emerge from this on-going study.

Older people's ability to thrive independently of their adult children is an important feature of a universalistic welfare system. However, population ageing puts this notion under stress. In separate multinomial logistic regression models for older men and women, we examined whether adult children's gender, number and proximity were associated with older parents' relocations into residential care facilities, and whether the effects of these children's characteristics on older parents' institutionalisation vary by parents' severe health problems, operationalised as closeness to death – specifically, dying within the two-year observation period. Analyses were based on the Swedish register data between 2014 and 2016 (N = 696,007 person-years). Older parents with at least one co-resident child were less likely to move or become institutionalised than those without a co-resident child. We did not find a relationship between older adults' institutionalisation and the closest child's gender. The negative effect of having a non-resident child living nearby on the likelihood of becoming institutionalised was more pronounced for mothers than fathers. Having a child nearby decreased the likelihood of moving to an institution more for mothers who had severe health problems than for those in better health. We found no evidence of a relationship between number of children and likelihood of institutionalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how common spaces in assisted living schemes for older persons are used by the residents. Observation studies, group interviews with staff and individual interviews with residents, relatives, architects and key stakeholders in the context of Swedish elder-care were conducted. Common spaces are the major location for in-house social interaction on the units. The results show a higher presence on the dementia units, compared to the somatic units. No significant correlation was found between the residents' mobility limitations and their degree of presence in the common spaces. The results also suggest a contradiction between the staff's intentions to provide a social context and the capabilities of the residents. Although common spaces are not used much between meals, the residents stress their importance for social interaction, suggesting that common spaces have important qualitative aspects, rather than quantitative. The results also show that few of the residents used the common spaces together with their relatives. The increasing use of assistive technology creates a shortage of space, suggesting a conflict between the efforts to create a home-like environment and the use of assistive technology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although mobility in and out of intimate relationships has become more common in later life, it has been a neglected issue in social gerontology. In this article, we ask what characterises the formation of new intimate relationships in later life, and whether there are any specific conditions that separate these from relationships in earlier stages of the lifecourse. On the basis of qualitative interviews with 28 persons aged 63–91 who have established a new intimate heterosexual relationship after the age of 60 or who are dating singles, we argue that time constitutes such a central structuring condition. We discuss and theorise two aspects of time – post-(re)productive free time and remaining time – which have an important formative power on new late-in-life relationships. We argue that together these aspects form a central existential structure of ageing in many Western societies – the paradoxical condition of having lots of available free time but little time left in life – which, besides influencing new late-in-life relationships, might also be relevant to other aspects of and choices in later life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]