The “fight” for adaptations: exploring the drivers and barriers to implementing home and environment modifications that support healthy ageing
International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation
ISSN: 2398-4708
Article publication date: 31 August 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The ageing and disabled population is fast growing, which emphasises the need to effectively modify current homes and environments to support healthy ageing and increasingly diverse health needs. This paper aims to bring together findings and analyses from three adaptations-focussed projects, drawing on perspectives from key stakeholders alongside the lived experiences of service users acquiring adaptations.
Design/methodology/approach
Following an Adaptations Framework developed from interviews and focus groups with older people and key stakeholders, the paper discusses barriers experienced by older people and front-line workers in receiving and delivering adaptations through all stages of the process.
Findings
This paper reveals how experiences around adaptations might diverge with unseen, hidden investment and need amongst individuals, and how conceptual and cost-focussed evidence gaps impact wider understandings of adaptations delivery. In so doing, this paper highlights how the adaptations process is perceived as a “fight” that does not work smoothly for either those delivering or receiving adaptations services.
Research limitations/implications
The paper suggests a systematic failure such that the adaptations process needs to be rehauled, reset and prioritised within social and public policy if the housing, health and social care sectors are to support healthy ageing and prepare for the future ageing population.
Originality/value
The paper brings together insights from key stakeholders alongside service users' experiences of adaptations to highlight key policy drivers and barriers to accessing and delivering adaptations.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for financial support through the CaCHE (grant reference: ES/P008852/1). The authors also thank Age Scotland for funding the project focussing on the perspectives of older people in Scotland and David Petrie. Special thanks go to all research participants who took the time to share their experiences. The authors would also like to thank those who were involved in and supported the three projects, including Lorna Cameron, Rachel Cooper, Alison Docherty, Janice Mason Duff, Angela Gardiner, Grant Gibson, Joan Gibson, Martin Hodges, Ro Pengelly, David Petrie and Jill Pritchard.
Citation
McCall, V., Gibb, K. and Wang, Y. (2023), "The “fight” for adaptations: exploring the drivers and barriers to implementing home and environment modifications that support healthy ageing", International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBPA-02-2023-0019
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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