mary marshall Senior Consultant, HammondCare; Honorary Professor, University of Edinburgh; Emeritus Professor of Dementia, University of Stirling
“ One of the things I teach when we do training is what good design is based on. And, increasingly, when I stand up and teach I say,‘ Look at me, I’ ve got arthritis: my proprioceptors are shot because I have two plastic joints and arthritis.’ In terms of sensory impairment, I’ ve
Chris Phillipson Professor of Sociology & Social Gerontology, University of Manchester
“ I think social gerontology must start to separate itself out from being an apologist for the welfare state and being an apologist for government policy. We haven’ t been very good at providing a critique of the push toward extended working life …
Christina Victor Professor of Gerontology and Public Health, Brunel University
“ I’ ve had this interest in loneliness for 30 years almost: loneliness, isolation, social exclusion. I’ m less interested in diseases like dementia or incontinence in and of themselves, but much more around how they affect how people live out their later lives … probably loosely hung
Ann Netten Professor of Social Welfare, University of Kent
“ I am absolutely bursting with pride about the way that ASCOT – the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit – has continued to develop. We wanted a measure that could stand up to the kind of measures you got in health service research, and you could use them in economic evaluation … it just
got the beginnings of macular degeneration; I know exactly what that looks like. So, what I benefit very directly from is experiencing what I’ m teaching. I don’ t know what the dickens the people I’ m teaching make of it when I say,‘ Look at me!’, as I cross the floor, watching the floor. That complexity is the huge challenge of designing for older people and people with dementia. I’ m acutely aware of ageing.”
But, the bigger picture, which I think social gerontology is muddled about, is how is the life course changing? What sort of later life are we developing in a globalised world? In a world of real instability? In a world where transitions are much more unstable, fragmented, fluid? There’ s a fantastic task here to rethink the way old age is being reconstructed, but I don’ t get the sense that there’ s enough of that going on.”
together by quality of life, wellbeing: what promotes it, what inhibits it. And, from the public health dimension, looking at inequality: be that gender or age or class or increasingly ethnicity. And trying to think how we can integrate those together in a kind of intersectional kind of way.”
sort of fell together. Because of the very nature of the group we were looking at, so many people can’ t answer interviews; so many people can’ t fill in the questionnaires. So it had to be a toolkit. We were so surprised because it took off not just amongst academics but it was a practice interest [ and ] there’ s such international interest.”
BILL BYTHEWAY Sketcher and allotmenteer; former Senior Research Fellow, The Open University
“ I would like to think that ageism as a topic of research would’ ve been to some extent affected by what I’ ve done and what I’ ve written on it. Having said that, I don’ t really see it happening. It’ s a paradox isn’ t it? On the one hand I think older people at the moment are having it quite easy, aren’ t they? Aren’ t we? Compared
Chris Gilleard Visiting Research Fellow, University College London
“ The issues of the third age I think are central issues: they are the most important issues for our time. The issues of the third age and the continuing validity of an emancipatory potential for later life: that it’ s become more, and it will continue to be more, whatever constraints are placed upon it.”
Sheila Peace Freelance consultant; Emeritus Professor of Social Gerontology, The Open University
“ The motivating force for me has always been that interaction between person and environment and wanting to understand that at all levels: to look at both the macro issues that are global now, right down to the micro level of the work that I have done in the last five years around the kitchen. As we get older, there are issues
Mike Nolan Visiting Professor of Gerontological Nursing, University of Sheffield
“ I’ d always been interested in the long-term care end of the spectrum [ but ] there’ s never been, to my mind, a sense of therapeutic rationale for those who work with older patients who can’ t be cured: for whom rehabilitation is not now a viable option. The idea behind the Senses [ Framework ] was to construct a set of principles for
with the students next door who are basically loading themselves up with debts for the rest of their lives. So, who are we to whinge? But, at the same time... the whole society is fundamentally ageist … Even when I’ m asked to declare my age:‘ I’ m older you know’ because that’ s how things work. It’ s relatively quick and painless... but the fact is you are categorising yourself, and barring yourself from various possibilities and, at the same time, privileging yourself.”
“ The fourth age is not a social practice; it is an imaginary. It’ s an imaginary that is pervasive and that is internalised: we have it to a degree, not just institutions, not just nursing homes … it’ s in us, a constraint in us. It’ s like a shadow in the sense that it alters the way we look at the world. And it’ s being able to acknowledge that.”
around that relationship between the person and their environment which has a knock-on effect for being able to stay put in your own home, and which has policy implications. All of these things are connected at those macro, meso and micro levels. So, you find me toying with the ways of bringing this together as a book which will involve some reflection on these pieces of research that I’ ve been involved in over time.”
those working in a long-term care setting that says,‘ This is what I do. Here is how I measure the success of my work.’ If, as a society, we want the frailest older people in the population to get the best care, we have to recognise that work as being highly important and highly skilled. Senses started off very much focused on long-term care; it’ s now been adapted and applied to acute care settings, communitybased settings … been taken up in Australia and Southeast Asia and other countries as well.”
51 / THE AGEING OF BRITISH GERONTOLOGY