City Research Online

Abstract

With ageing comes an increased risk of poor health and social isolation, particularly in poorer populations. Older people are under-represented in research and as a result interventions may not take account of their context or barriers to participation. In co-creative work future service users work with professionals on an equal basis to design, develop and produce a service or intervention. Our objectives were to undertake a co-creation study with older people living in a northern city in the United Kingdom, ii)explore maintenance of health and wellbeing in older age)explore the application of co-creation with an older community population and) evaluate the process and inform future work. The study was conducted during2016bya project team of ten lay community dwelling older people and four university researchers. Findings demonstrate that state of mind and of health were key to wellbeing in older age. Feeling safe, comfortable and pain free were important along with being able to adapt to change, have choice and a sense of personal freedom. Social connectedness was seen as the keystone to supporting healthy behaviours. Rather than developing new interventions, there was a perceived need to connect people with existing resources and provide a human “bridge” to address barriers to accessing these. In conclusion, the co-creation process proved productive, even when undertaken on a small scale. The scope of the project needs to be realistic, to use diverse methods of recruitment and skilled facilitators, and to prepare well in terms of accessibility, simple systems and appropriate information provision.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Glover L, Dyson J, Cowdell F, Kinsey D Health & Social Care in the Community 28(6):2233-2242, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13036. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
Publisher Keywords:	Co-creation, older people, healthy ageing, wellbeing, loneliness, social isolation
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races R Medicine > RT Nursing
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Nursing
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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