Older, Louder and Stronger: the Changing Ageing Partnership putting older people first

The Changing Ageing Partnership (Cap) in Northern Ireland was established to help place older people’s voices at the heart of policy development. Making research relevant to the needs of society and translating the findings of research into policy and practice are challenges shared by all working in the field of ageing. This paper describes Cap’s development and evolution over the past three years. It provides an insight into the strategies used by Cap to stimulate interest in ageing related research across Queen’s University Belfast and in enabling older people and others to be active participants in the research process. The paper concludes by highlighting the challenges that remain.

House value as an indicator of cumulative wealth is strongly related to morbidity and mortality risk in older people: a census-based cross-sectional and longitudinal study

Background: There has been relatively little research into health inequalities in older populations. This may be partly explained by the difficulty in identifying appropriate indicators of socio-economic status for older people. Ideally, indicators of socio-economic status to be used in studies of health inequalities in older populations should incorporate some measure of life-time socio-economic standing, and house value may fill this role. This study examined whether an indicator of accumulated wealth based on a combination of housing tenure and house value was a strong predictor of ill-health in older populations.
Methods: A total of 191 848 people aged =65 years and not living in communal establishments were identified from the 2001 Northern Ireland Census and followed for 5 years. Self-reported health and mortality risk by housing tenure/house value groupings were examined while controlling for a range of other demographic and socio-economic characteristics.
Results: Housing tenure/house value was highly correlated with other indicators of socio-economic status. Public-sector renters had worse self-reported health and higher mortality rates than owner occupiers but significant gradients were also found between those living in the highest-and lowest-valued owner-occupier properties. The relationship between housing tenure and value was unchanged by adjustment for indicators of social support and quality of the physical environment. Adjustment for limiting long-term illness and self-reported health at baseline narrowed but did not eliminate the health gains associated with living in more expensive housing.
Conclusions: House value of residence is an accessible and powerful indicator of accumulated wealth that is highly correlated with current health status and predictive of future mortality risk in older populations.

Cluster randomised controlled trial of an infection control education and training intervention programme focusing on meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in nursing homes for older people

The aim of this cluster randomised controlled trial was to test the impact of an infection control education and training programme on meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) prevalence in nursing homes. Nursing homes were randomised to intervention (infection control education and training programme; N¼16) or control (usual practice continued; N¼16). Staff in intervention homes were educated and trained (0, 3 and 6 months) in the principles and implementation of good infection control practice with infection control audits conducted in all sites (0, 3, 6 and 12 months) to assess compliance with good practice. Audit scores were fed back to nursing home managers in intervention homes, together with a written report indicating where practice could be improved. Nasal swabs were taken from all consenting residents and staff at 0, 3, 6 and 12 months. The primary outcome was MRSA prevalence in residents and staff, and the secondary outcome was a change in infection control audit scores. In all, 793 residents and 338 staff were recruited at baseline. MRSA prevalence did not change during the study in residents or staff. The relative risk of a resident being colonised with MRSA in an intervention home compared with a control home at 12 months was 0.99 (95% con?dence interval: 0.69, 1.42) after adjustment for clustering. Mean infection control audit scores were signi?cantly higher in the intervention homes (82%) compared with the control homes (64%) at 12 months (P<0.0001). Consideration should be given to other approaches which may help to reduce MRSA in this setting.

Professional perspectives on decision making about the long-term care of older people

With the increasing pressure on social and health care resources, professionals have to be more explicit in their decision making regarding the long-term care of older people. This grounded theory study used 19 focus groups and nine semi-structured interviews (99 staff in total) to explore professional perspectives on this decision making. Focus group participants and interviewees comprised care managers, social workers, consultant geriatricians, general medical practitioners, community nurses, home care managers, occupational therapists and hospital discharge support staff. The emerging themes spanned context, clients, families and services. Decisions were often prompted by a crisis, hindering professionals seeking to make a measured assessment. Fear of burglary and assault, and the willingness and availability of family to help were major factors in decisions about living at home. Service availability in terms of public funding for community care, the availability of home care workers and workload pressures on primary care services influenced decision 'thresholds' regarding admission to institutional care. Assessment tools designed to assist decision making about the long-term care of older people need to take into account the critical aspects of individual fears and motivation, family support and the availability of publicly funded services as well as functional and medical needs.

Providing Legal Information and Advice to Older People: as much a question of accessibility as affordability

No continent has as high a proportion of older people as Europe. In this paper, we report the findings of an empirical project examining the legal advice needs of older people. An important element of the project also sought information about the capacity of the internet for meeting the legal advice needs of older people. Overall our findings broadly indicate considerable failings in legal information provision for older people from more traditional advice sources. Whilst we have uncovered some examples of individualised good practice, our research in the main revealed an alarming sense of fear, mistrust, uncertainty and ambivalence among older people towards accessing legal advice. The research was funded by the Changing Ageing Partnership (CAP). We believe our findings have broad implications and applicability across Europe.

‘Making Older People Equal: Reforming the Law on Access to Education and Other Services’

Age-based discrimination in the supply of goods and services (including educational services) has only very recently been outlawed in the United Kingdom by the Equality Act 2010, the relevant sections of which have not yet been brought into force. This paper critically considers the Act and its implications, as well as the current proposal for an EU Directive on Goods and Services.The greatest immediate potential of the Equality Act lies in the general prohibition against age discrimination and the scope of the exceptions to it. The paper argues that exceptions permitting service providers to discriminate against older people (i.e. negative exceptions) should be very specifically set out in the reforming legislation.There should be no general defence to a claim of age discrimination based around the concept of ‘reasonableness’, which would not be consistently interpreted by courts and tribunals in a way that steers clear of traditional ageist assumptions and stereotyping.The paper argues that service providers should be permitted to discriminate in favour of older people (i.e. make positive exceptions) if the reason for doing do so satisfi es legislative criteria which are designed, amongst other things, to meet the particular needs of older persons or to promote social inclusion. Under this proposal, preferential treatment such as age-related concessionary fees for adult education courses and programmes would be lawful.