ABSTRACT
Posed 16 years ago in a much-cited editorial by gerontologist, Alan Walker, "Why involve older people in research?" is a question that has since inspired researchers in many countries and from diverse disciplines. In Sweden, researchers and older people have been collaborating in the 6-year UserAge research programme, focusing on user involvement in research on ageing and health, UserAge aims at contributing to an in-depth understanding of the challenges and benefits of user involvement in different phases of the research process. Approaching programme completion, the authors take the opportunity to dwell upon current reasons for and modes of user involvement in ageing research in light of the argument originally put forward by Alan Walker back in 2007.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Participatory research has been described to improve the relevance of research findings for the society in terms of quality of healthcare services and other public benefits. Nevertheless, there is limited guidance on how to conduct participatory research, and especially in relation to persons living in residential care facilities. To make the voices of this group heard, we therefore take a stance in the democratic approach to participatory research, and we have applied the theoretical framework Model of Human Occupation (MoHO) on participation to evaluate photo-elicitation interviews as a participatory research method with this group. METHODS: A total of 13 persons living in two residential care facilities were involved in the study and asked to take photographs of their everyday life over one week. They were then invited to an individual interview to narrate the meaning of the photographs and to describe how they experienced the photo-elicitation method. The interviews were analysed in the six steps of theoretically driven reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: The findings are described in the theme 'Uncovering hidden abilities for participation in research' that describes how photo elicitation interviews facilitated the older persons' participation in research. This is illustrated by four sub-themes: 'Bridging the ageing body', 'Altering habituation to everyday life', 'Empowering storytelling', and 'Negotiating the institutional culture'. CONCLUSIONS: Our study findings support further application and evaluation of photo-elicitation interviews as a method for participatory research in residential care facilities. The major finding is how photo-elicitation interviews were used to reduce the impact of the institutional culture on the older persons' participation in research. The method is, however, not without limitations and we encourage researchers to study the dynamic relationship between physical, social, and cultural aspects of residential care facilities in relation to the use of photo-elicitation interviews with the persons living there.
This study was designed to improve the opportunities for persons living in residential care facilities to participate in research on their own terms. Digital instant print cameras were used by 13 older persons to document their everyday life at two different residential care facilities. The photographs were then followed up with individual interviews, during which the older persons were asked to share their experiences of using the cameras and to tell stories about the meaning of the photographs. Analysing the interviews, we found that the older persons could participate in the study in a way that they did not believe was possible before. They were not used to being given responsibility, and they felt limited by physical and cognitive impairment. Participating in the study, they realised that they had something to contribute with, and that there were aspects of everyday life that they really enjoyed. They felt empowered to share their stories, and we encourage researchers to continue evaluating photographs in combination with interviews in residential care facilities.
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OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to describe the initial phase of a long-term collaboration initiative between a municipality and the Faculty of Medicine at a university in Sweden. The overall ambition of the collaboration is to strengthen the quality of care for older people. The concrete goal is to equip academically trained registered health care professionals (HCP) with tools for transferring evidence-based knowledge into practice. As municipal healthcare for older people is mainly carried out by staff lacking academic education, reg. HCP are key actors to bring in and consolidate an evidence-based approach in this setting. Developmental evaluation (DE) has been used to evaluate four separate activities in the initial phase. The activities where sequenced in a cumulative design to provide knowledge for further development of adequate tools. RESULTS: The cumulative design originally planned did not fit the internal logic of the municipality. Therefore, workflow and pace adjustments were made to proceed towards the joint ambition; the creation of fruitful conditions for the uptake of evidence-based knowledge. Long-term collaboration between academia and organizations outside academia demands a sensitive and flexible research approach, recognizing that collaboration implies mutuality and restricts the sovereignty of academia in designing research.
Subject(s)
Delivery of Health Care , Health Personnel , Aged , Humans , SwedenABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the importance of social protection systems, including income security, when health problems arise. The aims of this study are to compare the follow-up regimes for sick-listed employees across nine European countries, and to conduct a qualitative assessment of the differences with respect to burden and responsibility sharing between the social protection system, employers and employees. The tendency highlighted is that countries with shorter employer periods of sick-pay typically have stricter follow-up responsibility for employers because, in practice, they become gatekeepers of the public sickness benefit scheme. In Germany and the UK, employers have few requirements for follow-up compared with the Nordic countries because they bear most of the costs of sickness absence themselves. The same applies in Iceland, where employers carry most of the costs and have no obligation to follow up sick-listed employees. The situation in the Netherlands is paradoxical: employers have strict obligations in the follow-up regime even though they cover all the costs of the sick-leave themselves. During the pandemic, the majority of countries have adjusted their sick-pay system and increased coverage to reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19 because employees are going to work sick or when they should self-quarantine, except for the Netherlands and Belgium, which considered that the current schemes were already sufficient to reduce that risk.
