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Improving participatory practice and well-being with older people

Summary of the impact

Research into participative practice and well-being with older people has contributed directly to the development and application of an ethic of care in policy and service delivery, as well as to practices in older people's participation, locally, nationally and internationally. The research has directly impacted on practitioners and practice developments in services for older people, with learning resources (co-designed with practitioners and older people) being used in professional education and training across the UK and in New Zealand. An innovative participatory methodology has both enhanced older people's participation locally and been adopted more widely by university community research collaborators working to enhance older people's citizenship and well-being (eg in Netherlands). Research has directly informed policy concerning older people's needs assessments by recognising the centrality of relationships to well-being in older age. The well-being research involving collaboration with service users and providers has been described as `exemplary' by the leading national charity Age UK.

Submitting Institution

University of Brighton

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

Care Transition Experiences: developing a user and carer centred approach

Summary of the impact

The project:

  1. Achieved positive changes in local health and social care policy and practice that directly responded to the concerns and experiences of older people;
  2. Enhanced the knowledge and practice of practitioners and policy makers, at national and local levels, about the experiences of older people and carers of moving across service boundaries ("transitions");
  3. Developed approaches that researchers and service commissioners and providers can employ to 1) involve marginalised older people in research and service development and 2) promote the citizenship of older people through their participation as co-researchers;
  4. Made the research findings accessible to practitioners and service providers through feedback events and workshops.

Submitting Institution

University of Birmingham

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

Healthy ageing and age-friendly cities: Reducing the social exclusion of older people

Summary of the impact

Research undertaken at Keele has made the social exclusion of older people visible to opinion- leaders and policy makers, helping to shape their perceptions of ageing. These changes in attitude have contributed to transforming provision for older people and promoting inter-generational interaction within local communities through both policy and practice, in both national and local government. The research has had a direct impact on national government policies, and has also coalesced into national campaigns to improve older people's lives. Regional impacts initially focussed on making Manchester an `age-friendly city' which has subsequently been used as a model for other local councils across the country.

Submitting Institution

Keele University

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Sociology

Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors (I'DGO)

Summary of the impact

Praised in the International Design for All Foundation Awards 2013 as "rigorous, empathic and very thoughtful", Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors (I'DGO) has changed both policy and practice relating to the design of outdoor environments. Focusing on meeting the needs of older people and disabled people, the consortium's practical guidance has been utilised locally, nationally and internationally by bodies ranging from the UK Department for Transport to the World Health Organization. Through media such as the British Science Festival and the BBC, the researchers have promoted the need for age-friendly design to the public, including older stakeholders. Their findings have impacted upon industry in a cross-cutting way, underpinning the training of professionals, from occupational therapists to urban designers and have changed people's lives for the better, supporting older people and disabled people to go out more through developing user led approaches to shaping outdoor environments.

Submitting Institution

University of Salford

Unit of Assessment

Architecture, Built Environment and Planning

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

6. Adding quality years to later life through interdisciplinary research linking built environment, health and wellbeing

Summary of the impact

By 2050, there will be 2 billion people in the world aged 60 or over. Award-winning research has provided new evidence that maintaining health and mobility in this ageing population is related to easy and enjoyable access to outdoor environments. This is crucial for combatting social isolation and physical inactivity, the latter being the fourth greatest risk to global mortality. Described by [text removed for publication] the All-Party Group on Intergenerational Futures as "phenomenally exciting", the research has stimulated better planning for healthy environments, using a network of c.40 non-academic partners to influence policy within the Scottish, UK and Japanese governments and in the European parliament. It has been used in training for over 1,000 industry professionals, in campaigns by major charities and in guidance by the World Health Organization.

Submitting Institutions

University of Edinburgh,Heriot-Watt University

Unit of Assessment

Architecture, Built Environment and Planning

Summary Impact Type

Health

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

ICT Inclusion and Design for All

Summary of the impact

The case described shows that work reported in the 2008 RAE exploring the information seeking strategies of older users is currently having a direct and significant impact on government policy in respect of the broad area of digital inclusion. Impact has been influential in two primary areas: advice and guidance to policy making bodies and training needs for organisations so that design can accommodate industrial needs. Specifically there have been invited contributions and provision of expert advice to Government policy making forums and to lead on training for designing for all especially in the area of standardisation in Europe and worldwide, including under EU Mandate 376, which is in the process of establishing EU wide rules to ensure accessibility to information and communication technologies (ICT) products and services. The visible impact of these activities is the publication of several important reports and the use of the research to support the call for European Directive on the accessibility of public sector bodies' websites and the selection to work with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Submitting Institution

Middlesex University

Unit of Assessment

Computer Science and Informatics

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Clinical Sciences, Public Health and Health Services

Applying research evidence to improve the life and end-of-life experience of older people

Summary of the impact

This case study demonstrates the impact of an inter-related body of research, undertaken by The Open University's (OU) Centre for Ageing and Biographical Studies, upon the ways in which older people experience everyday ageism, housing and design, and end-of-life care. The research has provided evidence for charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) seeking to shape government legislation, initiate action on age-friendly environments, and to change care practice. As a result it has helped inform the UK's Equality Act 2010, new guidance on toilets in public spaces, user-friendly extra-care housing and an exemplary training programme on end-of-life care in care homes.

Submitting Institution

Open University

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

How research on supported living environments for older people changed Welsh Policy and Practice

Summary of the impact

Research on residential care- and extracare-supported housing conducted by Swansea's Centre for Innovative Ageing (CIA) has impacted on the development and reconfiguration of supported housing services in Wales. Our research on care home closures has directly led to Welsh Government (WG) consultation on guidance regarding `escalating concerns' for care home closures, and the Independent Advisory Group on Local Authority Closure of Care Homes has recommended that our amendments to escalating concerns should be adopted in relation to care home closures due to strategic/policy reasons. Work is now underway by the WG to publish revised guidance in relation to care home closures based on our research. Three local authorities (Swansea, Vale of Glamorgan and Wrexham) have used our research on the challenges associated with extracare provision to inform the development of future services.

Submitting Institution

Swansea University

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services

Housing, Care and Wellbeing in Old Age: improving the living environments of older people

Summary of the impact

Keele's research on retirement communities, care and wellbeing in old age has contributed to a transformation in the way in which housing for older people is conceived of, built and experienced across the UK (and beyond), and has led to improved quality of life for thousands of older people. It underpins national, regional and local policies; has improved stakeholder (charities, trusts, businesses) and practitioner understandings of the significance of suitable housing and care; and had direct impact on practices at Berryhill Retirement Village and, more widely, on ExtraCare — the charity who have developed and now run 14 retirement villages and 17 housing schemes, including Berryhill, across the Midlands and the North of England.

Submitting Institution

Keele University

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration

Autism Spectrum Disorder in Later Life

Summary of the impact

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong condition, but has almost never been examined in adults over the age of forty years. Following an earlier bid for funding to examine this issue, Prof. Stuart-Hamilton was commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Govt (WAG) via the charity Autism Cymru to conduct a quantitative survey of problems faced by older adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A companion qualitative survey, involving interviews with a small sample, was conducted by colleagues at Bangor University. A formal report (consisting of Prof Stuart-Hamilton's and Bangor's findings) and a refereed paper (solely of Stuart-Hamilton's findings) have been published, predating other studies in this field that have since begun to appear in the UK and internationally. The report was formally adopted by WAG, leading to a national awareness-raising publication campaign and presentation of the report as part of WAG's ongoing strategy. Integration of the report's recommendations into government policy is anticipated when the ASD policy is revised in early 2014.

Submitting Institution

University of South Wales

Unit of Assessment

Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Summary Impact Type

Health

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Clinical Sciences, Public Health and Health Services
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Psychology

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