Older people’s experiences of getting help from neighbours
ISSN: 1366-3666
Article publication date: 24 August 2018
Issue publication date: 15 October 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate older people’s views and experiences of getting help from neighbours in order to consider whether such help is situated within neighbourliness and the implications for social care policy which seeks to harness help from neighbours.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study in which 15 older people from the North of England were interviewed to explore relationships with neighbours, managing day to day life and experiences of getting help from neighbours.
Findings
Relationships with helper neighbours were reciprocal, dynamic and preceded the start of getting help. The help offered was not negotiated but evolved in response to changes in circumstances and was commensurate with normative views of neighbourliness, i.e. reciprocated sociability and helpfulness but also respect for privacy. Respondents were reluctant to ask for help. Underpinning such reluctance were perceptions of imposing on neighbours, suggestive of anticipated asymmetry in the give-and-take of neighbourliness.
Social implications
Policy makers who see the help from neighbours as an output of household production and available as a source of informal care for older people must appreciate that whether help is offered or taken up is dependent on the development of a reciprocal relationship which itself depends on observing and respecting normative boundaries, such as in relation to help giving or receiving and due respect for privacy.
Originality/value
There has been little research into older people’s perspectives on getting help from neighbours despite diminishing public services and neighbours viewed as a potential source of care.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to the respondents for sharing their experiences, Elizabeth Porter and Pam Stephens, Tynedale U3A for helping to initiate and execute the study, Northumbria Royal Voluntary Service and staff at Voice North, Newcastle University, for helping to take the project forward and Kristian Pollock, University of Nottingham, for commenting on earlier drafts of the paper. The study was funded with awards from Northumbria Region U3A and from the Averil Osborn Memorial Fund of the British Society of Gerontology. The funders had no role in the research process.
Citation
Grime, J.C. (2018), "Older people’s experiences of getting help from neighbours", Working with Older People, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 178-186. https://doi.org/10.1108/WWOP-03-2018-0010
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited