UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 11 MAY 2023
The British public needs to foster a “deeper understanding” of the lives of care home residents and staff if the nation is to better cater for its ageing population, according to a Birmingham City University (BCU) researcher.
Jayme Tauzer, a doctoral student from BCU’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, spent three months living in a care home in the north of England as part of a four-year project looking into care provision for older people across five European countries.
Following her experiences, she is also advocating “more widespread solidarity” for care providers and recipients across the United Kingdom and will present some of her findings at a conference in Birmingham on Thursday 1 June.
“I did not leave the care home with an overly optimistic or purely pessimistic impression of residential care,” said Tauzer. “Instead, I felt an entrenchment in its messiness, a desire to walk alongside care providers and recipients, and to advocate for a deeper understanding and more widespread solidarity. Above all, I left with a sense that their struggle is ours.”
One of 15 researchers taking part in the INNOVATEDIGNITY project, Tauzer spent time in a care home during the second half of 2021 in order to gather information on the daily life experiences of old-age residents.
“Access of this type is rare, so the research will prove invaluable,” said Fiona Cowdell, Professor of Nursing and Health Research at BCU. “It is our intention that the entire project can inform and shape policy so we can provide better care for our ageing population.”
The project, funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, was set up to investigate the challenges around caring for older people in the context of an ageing European population.
The research, which has also involved institutions from Denmark, Norway, Greece and Sweden, has become increasingly relevant given ongoing discussions and debate about the provision of social care before, during and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Almost 20,000 care home residents died when the first wave of COVID-19 hit care homes in England and Wales in the spring of 2020.
A recent investigation by the Nuffield Trust health thinktank and the London School of Economics found successive governments have been guilty of “letting one of our most important public services languish in constant crisis for years”.
The two-year study also determined that “distress and heartbreak for millions could have been avoided if the government had not missed opportunities to prepare social care for a pandemic”.
Social care for older people is becoming more and more relevant given that the population of England and Wales continues to age.
Census 2021 results confirmed there are more people than ever in older age groups.
More than 11 million people – 18.6% of the total population – were aged 65 years or older, compared with 16.4% at the time of the previous census in 2011. This included more than half a million (527,900) people who were at least 90 years of age.
In the next 25 years, the number of people older than 85 will double to 2.6 million.
“We want to begin a conversation about growing old and ageing and the meaning of that, and also provide a way to begin to reframe, rethink and reflect again on this narrative that ageing is all about decline,” said project lead Kathleen Galvin, Professor of Nursing Practice in the School of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Brighton.
“The meaning of ageing cannot be reduced to decline in our everyday understandings. We are interested in well-being and living well. These are the kinds of conversations we want to have with the public, as well as having recommendations for policy and practice, too."
Tauzer hopes the research can help shape future government policy.
“Old age is often defined by physical and mental ailments associated with frailty and cognitive decline,” she said. “However, treating the body is only a part of what is needed in residential care.
“Ultimately, it is the hope that if we continue to look deeper, we can better navigate the complex care needs of the whole person.”
Find out more about the conference, which takes place at The Studio in Birmingham: