Focused Discussions (Asynchronous - Online Only)
Ageing in Long-term Care: A Converging View of a Broken System View Digital Media
Focused Discussion Maude Lévesque
This focused discussion presents the ongoing findings and analyses of a year-long research on long-term care service provision. The research was conducted in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, one which has considerably strained an already inadequate system of end-of-life care in Canada. The perspective of informal caregivers was contrasted with that of long-term care workers to shed light on the systemic problems underlying the provision of care in long-term care centres, both regarding the issues predating the pandemic and those exacerbated by it. Twenty participants were sampled from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, two of the most affected Canadian provinces under Covid-19. Semi-directive interviews were conducted to explore the lived experiences of individuals involved with long-term care centres. A thematic analysis of content, paired with a lexicographic analysis of the interview transcriptions, is expected to provide comparative data on the experience of caregivers and workers alike under two distinct contexts of healthcare provision. This study serves to question the end-of-life conditions of our Canadian elderly, debate the effects of a broken palliative system on families and healthcare professionals as well as interrogate the status of our elders in a neoliberal political climate.
The Relational and Intergenerational Representation of Old Age in the Transition to Frailty : An Empirical Analysis in Italy Based on Dyadic Interviews between the Elderly and Their Reference People View Digital Media
Focused Discussion Sara Nanetti, Donatella Bramanti
The first results of an empirical research study carried out in Italy titled Redesign (FRAIL ANZIANI, INTERGENERATIONAL SOLIDARITY AND COMMUNITIES FRIENDLY TO AGEING) is presented. The research adopts intergenerational dyadic interviews as a methodological tool, by involving the elderly (identified on the basis of indicators of fragility) and their younger reference person (recognized and indicated by the elderly themselves) as a target audience. The unit of analysis considered is therefore the intergenerational pair (dyad): elderly and caregiver (or reference person). The analysis of the dyadic interviews, conducted with the NVivo Software, provides the image of ageing and old age emerging from intergenerational dialogue. From results, it is therefore possible to identify some specific types of representation of seniority in relation to the dyad, the informal and formal network environment, and the stressful events occurred to the interviewees. The representation of old age seems, in fact, closely connected with the quality and intensity of relationships, the environment of associative and local life that the interviewees relate to, and stressful events that have recently happened to them.
