Newsletter: February 2007
Flirting with life
exploring ways to build cultures of engagement and activity in aged care facilities
Our work in a 'sea change' community
opportunities and obligations in a city that is attracting large numbers of retirees
Pre-retirement workshops
some of our experiences
Working carers
caring for an elderly person while continuing to work has unexpected benefits and problems
Flirting with life
'Growing old' is a common phrase and perhaps because it is, we tend to forget its essential point: that older people are still growing. The advance of years delivers new challenges and, in meeting them, people continue to grow as individuals. Or should.
There is a widespread concern that older people, especially when they move into residential care, even into retirement villages, experience a narrowing down, a closing in - a long phase of non-growth. Deprived of fresh opportunities to remain engaged or to be stimulated, they develop neither new interests, new capacities nor new self-understanding.
A number of agencies are working to ensure this doesn't happen. Amana Living, a part of the Anglican community here in Western Australia which runs diverse aged care facilities (nursing homes, hostels, retirement villages, dementia units), is one of them. It has set up a significant project, the Personal Enrichment Program, to explore various approaches to engaging and enlivening residents' experience.
Re.vision is helping to manage and guide the program. Anne and Ann have already been involved in broad consultations and site visits. They've talked with Amana Living staff and with residents and spent time simply observing how things work. One thing they keep noticing is the huge variability in people's mindsets and expectations.
Over the course of the year Re.vision will facilitate a series of internal projects to test and explore enrichment approaches identified by Amana Living's 'dream teams'. These range from figuring out ways to make life more exciting and challenging (learning to fly rather than taking a trip to a shopping centre); putting simple physical contact back into life; and creating nostalgic experiences.
The overall concept is 'flirting with life' and the intention is to establish a new culture of enrichment throughout Amana Living. Amana Living is justifiably proud of this ambition and we are extremely pleased (and privileged) to play a part in making the ambition a reality.
Our work in a 'sea change' community'
We are working with the City of Mandurah, about an hour's drive south of Perth, on a project to improve the City's (and our) understanding of the expectations active older people have (and will have) of their community and, in turn, the strengths they bring to that community.
Mandurah is known as a 'sea change' area, especially for older people. In the five years to 2003 the number of people aged 55-59 in the city increased 45 percent. Almost 20 percent of Mandurah's population is over 65, compared to a WA average of 12 percent.
This project began with a series of workshops where people considered what they might do; what skills, talents and interests they bring; how they can contribute to the community of Mandurah. A number of themes emerged from the workshops and 'learning circles' are being formed to explore - really to test the capacity of the community - to respond to and enhance the interests of older people.
The Learning Circles are likely to be directed at the following issues and topics, at least - there may well be others:
phased retirement: making it work
volunteering: making it better for donors and recipients
community arts
building connections in a new community
active ageing in the Aboriginal context
The plan is for each group to decide on specific objectives and make a real effort to achieve them. Local resources will be made available: eg, City of Mandurah staff and library resources, access to Small Business Development Corporation, Business Enterprise Centre resources, volunteer organisations. The purpose is to learn what resources may be required that are or are not currently available.
The project is being supported by the WA Department of Local Government and Regional Development through their Active Ageing at the Local Level Fund.
Pre-retirement workshops
Our work with and for local government continues to grow.
Last year we ran two consecutive half-day workshops with employees from the City of Perth who were anticipating retirement. We were struck by the eagerness of the participants to openly share their thoughts and concerns about the transition to this next phase of their lives. Many of these people had been long-term employees with the City of Perth so moving out of the comfort and familiarity of full-time employment was a bit daunting for some.
We've done something similar for the City of Wanneroo although these workshops were run with two discrete groups - one with those who worked in the central administration, the other with 'outdoor workers'. There were some participants in both groups who were in their late 30s to early 40s, keen to start thinking ahead to the so-called 'retirement' phase. The idea of phased retirement appealed to some but not at all to others.
And a workshop for the City of Melville. This workshop was aimed mainly at the outdoor workers, though several women from the central administration and Human Resource area who joined the group. Having a mixed group like this worked well. It adds breadth and richness to the discussion.
Re.vision continues to provide sessions for the Government Employees Superannuation Board's twice monthly pre-retirement seminars. We have been running these sessions for two years now and we've noticed that many more people are considering 'second' or subsequent careers. Some attendees already have well formed plans for their next move while others are looking forward to leaving their current work to have time to find or make a new opportunity from an existing hobby or interest.
Working Carers
Anne Butorac's study of the way working carers of the elderly deal with the dual roles of working and caring, funded jointly by Carers WA and The Disability Services Commission, has been completed. Her probing interviews with twenty-two carers, coupled with her own experience in looking after her centenarian mother, provide pertinent insights into the caring role for people still in the workforce.
One of the issues to emerge from the discussions relates to how people build a knowledge base around their caring role. For most, the caring role in which they found themselves was a new one and often not one they had anticipated. On the whole, how they built that knowledge base was quite haphazard. Very few were at all prepared for the role, and this was true even for those who came from a background in 'care'. It is clear that there is a general lack of information both about available support services and about what might be desirable or possible.
While the physical condition of the care recipients was an important topic of conversation, people also often mentioned aspects of interpersonal dynamics that underscored the physical care and nursing support carers provided. In some more extreme cases, the caring situation seemed to be overwhelmed by tensions arising from other-than-medical aspects of caring. Carers often talked about navigating difficult interpersonal areas and managing broader family dynamics. Indeed, at times even the well intentioned support of family and friends generated additional tensions for the carer. Despite all this, what came through almost all the interviews was an incredible underlying love and commitment to to the caring task.
The carers represented a range of work situations. Some worked on a full-time basis, some on a part-time basis; most went to a work site, some were self-employed and were home-based workers. Those who had very inflexible work situations tended to deliberately separate their working and caring roles, frequently signalled in the discussions as 'work is work', caring is something else and a personal responsibility. For those who were home-based workers, especially, working and caring were much more seamless; one was able to flow into the other and on-the-spot accommodations more readily made.
What also emerged in these discussions were aspects of how the two roles complemented one another. For many people the working role actually helped people to cope with the caring role. Conversely, for many people the caring role enriched the working role. Nonetheless, employers generally need to be far more alert and sensitive to the needs of working carers. Interestingly, the carers themselves said they needed to be more open about their situation.
Anne (together with an associate carer, Lois Gatley) has been asked to do a similar exploratory study of carers of children with a disability.