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