The University of Brighton and Age UK Brighton & Hove have been collaborating on a programme of participatory research since 2007. We have worked with older people as co-researchers, most recently focusing on experiences of wellbeing and what this means to older people.
Now we are applying learning from both the way we have worked together and the findings from the wellbeing project to develop good practice in older people's participation and awareness of the factors that contribute to wellbeing in later life. We have funding from the ESRC Follow on Funding programme for this.
Over a period of 12 months from November 2011 we will be working with practitioners from statutory and voluntary services as well as with older people, to produce learning resources to be used in training practitioners and in developing work with older people.
The project will be lead by Professor Marian Barnes and Dr Lizzie Ward from the School of Applied Social Science and Dr Beatrice Gahagan, Senior Manager, Age UK Brighton & Hove.
Read the findings from our wellbeing research:
Older members of the research team have produced a booklet for other older people based on this work:
As Time Goes By... Thoughts on
Wellbeing in Later Years (pdf 2.3Mb)
Other publications based on this work:
Ward, L. and Gahagan, B. (2012) 'Empowering Engagement? Involving older people in research' in M. Barnes and P. Cotterell (eds) Critical Perspectives on User Involvement. Bristol; Policy Press.
Ward, L. and Gahagan, B. (2010) 'Crossing the Divide between Theory and Practice: research and an Ethic of Care'. Ethics and Social Welfare 4 (2) 210 - 216.
If you would like to find out more about our work, please get in touch with Lizzie Ward, E.Ward@brighton.ac.uk
