Personal benefits of older adults engaging in a participatory action research (PAR) project.

Participatory action research (PAR) is the process of conducting research with people rather than for them and is perceived as an empowering activity for older adults who participate in it. However, there is little evidence that outlines and explains the reasons why older adults engage in PAR. Thus, the aim of this study was to better understand the personal benefits for older adults participating in PAR. We based our study on the experiences of four older adults who volunteered for CareComLabs, a Swiss-based PAR project, for more than two years. A constructivist grounded theory design was used to explore the benefits of participating in CareComLabs by conducting in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The analysis yielded four categories of personal benefits of participating in CareComLabs: (a) enriching relationships; (b) broadening horizons for older age; (c) keeping in touch with one's profession; and (d) interacting in a nurturing community. Our findings may have implications for policies and frameworks focused on the identification of the potential of participatory action research as a community resource.

Of odysseys and miracles: A narrative approach on therapeutic mobilities for ayurveda treatment.

In the past two decades, health care has become a global market and transnational practice. An emerging body of literature examines the astounding variety of drivers, conditions, and experiences. However, the question of how traveling abroad for treatment emerges as an option and takes shape in people's illness trajectories has gained little attention thus far. This article attends to this gap by following the stories of people with chronic conditions who travel to India for Ayurveda treatment out of dissatisfaction with local biomedical health care. This study expands the focus of current research on transnational therapeutic mobilities in three ways: (1) by shifting the attention from being a foreign patient or medical traveler to becoming one, (2) by integrating quests for other-than-biomedical therapies, and (3) by applying a narrative approach to the field. Results show that apart from social, human, and financial resources, it takes certain patient-subjectivities to mobilize patients across borders and healing systems.