Good places to grow old? Reflections on age-friendly rural communities

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Good places to grow old? Reflections on
age-friendly rural communities

• Norah Keating
• University of Alberta

Ellen Gee Memorial Lecture November 2007 Vancouver
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The question

• How might rural communities contribute to helping
  older adults flourish?
• Are rural communities good places to grow old?

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Approaches

• Analysis of rural community profiles of the
  Census
• National telephone survey of older adults in
  rural Canada
• Case study of 3 rural communities in Canada
• high proportion of older adults (over 22)
• small population (1000-3000 people)

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Being engaged in rural communities

• Interviews with key community members older
  adults, family members, service providers,
  volunteers

• Photographs of older adults, community settings,
  activities
• Community consultations

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Findings

• Seniors differ considerably in resources,
  preferences, community engagement

• Community active seniors
• Stoic seniors
• Marginalized seniors
• Frail seniors

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Community active seniorsThe movers and the
shakers. They get the stuff done in this
community.

• are actively engaged in their communities in a
  wide range of formal informal activities.
• have resources that allow them to be
  active--energy, money, time, skills.
• get a sense of satisfaction from contributing to
  their community.

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Community active seniorsbelieve it is important
to be engaged

• keeping busy and being involved whether its
  the church or seniors or friends or whatever.
• Theyre just entering the retirement zone and
  are looking for ways to contribute, still be
  active, and have something meaningful in their
  lives.
• If you want to live in a certain type of
  community, you have to make a contribution to
  making it that kind of community.
• Ill be there one day, who knows!

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Community active seniorsare active

• involved in everything. There is that group of
  people that canvas for arthritis and kidney, and
  theyre the same people who belong to the
  service club and the church womens club and
  are visiting seniors and drive people to their
  appointments.
• Yesterday morning I went over to nursing home
  in the morning. From there I went directly over
  to the seniors centre... Tomorrow I have to make
  a cake for the church to take to the funeral
  tomorrow afternoon.
• Some of these women put in more hours
  volunteering than I do working.

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Community active seniorshave resources

• Weve had a huge influx in this community of
  financially comfortable retireestheyre not so
  concerned about making extra money so they are
  willing to support our organization and other
  organizations with their time.
• I think thats why we got involved, because we
  do have the time and we can help out.
• They suddenly have find all kinds of outlets for
  their talents and their qualifications.

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Stoic seniorsThey want to continue living on
the farm until they can no longer manage because
its home, theres privacy and were used to it.

• are best identified by their reserved,
  hard-working nature and preference for
  purposeful, meaningful activities. They have
  limited community involvement, preferring
  solitary over social activities.

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Stoic seniorsare practical and purposeful

• I do not water my grass. I do not do
  landscaping. I plant berries in the garden.
• I still have some cattle and I still do my share
  of the field work.
• Im very helpful for Sadie. I help her. And my
  other ones, if they need any help, Im there.
• Tomorrow theres a supper with ham and beans and
  potato scallop and pies and cakes galore of
  course. So Ill be going to work at that.

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Stoic seniorsare not joiners

• She does care, she does have a lot of community
  pride, and shes interested in everything that
  goes on, but she just chooses not to be out in
  front of everyone.

• I do not belong to the Legion. I do not belong
  to the senior centre association, and I dont
  want to.
• They have a good, good active seniors rec
  centre. So a lot of people enjoy that. But Id
  rather read my old magazines here at home.

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Stoic seniorsare very private

• Im a solitary person. I dont run around asking
  other people.
• Stoic ones are the ones you can check in with,
  have a 10 minutes conversation and be on your way
  because if theres anything up-well, theyre
  stoic and theyre not going to tell you anyway.
• Its too hard to make friends.
• She is very independent and said that she rarely
  calls on others for help, although she has lots
  of people around her who could help her out if
  she needed it. She calls the mayor to ask him
  questions.

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Stoic seniorsmake do

• Its affordable for meI own my house. What I
  need is here at present.

• We are able to provide for ourselves, look after
  ourselves.
• The couple said they are self sufficient and
  havent had any need to call on help from
  anybody.
• They still consider themselves self-reliant, and
  shes quite proud of that I think.

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Marginalized seniorsNothin else going for me.
I got no kids, never was married. Thats probably
why nobody ever comes around and visit.

• might best be defined as isolated or excluded
  because of their tenuous social, economic, and/or
  health status. They are among the least visible
  seniors, difficult to access as research
  participants, and whose needs often are not seen
  by others.

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Marginalized seniorsare invisible

• I dont belong to anything here.
• No one really knows theyre there in a lot of
  cases.
• They might not realize that theyre
  vulnerableother older people in the community
  would know that Mrs. So-and-so existed, but they
  may not realize what is happening inside that
  household.

• They may quite comfortably have
  sought out isolation and then as they become
  senior that becomes problematic.

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Marginalized seniorsare economically vulnerable

• So far Ive been able to handle it financially.
  But like, Im not going to get the car
  undercoated this year cause I cant afford the
  100.
• we find we dont do too much shopping here
  because we find the stores are too expensive here
  for groceries.
• I just have my bare income to rely on and have a
  mortgage. Its hard. Its hard.
• There are lots of recreation opportunities for
  seniors here if you can afford to go.

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Marginalized seniorshave health concerns

• You know, Ive had to struggle. Its been a
  struggle trying to live here. Its a struggle for
  anybody that has poor health.

• If he spouse dies, I will too because I have a
  serious heart condition.

• The only time they come to the attention of
  anybody is when they end up in the hospital.

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Frail seniors Im just on borrowed time.

• may best be described as experiencing
  significant health concerns that affect their
  daily living and their patterns of engagement.
  Their health concerns range from limited mobility
  to breathing difficulties and heart problems.
  They often report multiple concerns.

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Frail seniorshave health problems that require
assistance

• I get short of breath if I do any fast walking.
  I get short of breath when Im talking which is a
  horrible disadvantage for me because that means
  Im short of breath damn near all the time.

• The only problem is getting your mail if you
  dont walk very goodI have to walk with a
  walker, outside and I cant walk downtown. Maybe
  when summer comes I might try.
• Government agency paid for the hearing
  aidsthe yard maintenancemy walker and about
  1100 a year for yard maintenance and snow
  shoveling.

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Frail seniorsdiffer in their preferences for
community engagement

• If you didnt do these things, you would die.
  Thats when you feel all your aches and pains,
  when youre sitting there and you start feeling
  sorry for yourselfyou gotta get out, you gotta
  get involved or forget it.

• I quilt alone and I dont mind. I love it.
• Ive seen, for instance, maybe how one group of
  nursing home residents well get do absolutely
  nothingThey were just content in their room. But
  then weve had another group that just loved to
  go to bingo and they love their games.

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Frail seniorsdiffer in their economic
resources

• I get the old age pension.
• All they have is the basic universal pension.
• I was pretty lucky. I sold 3 or 4 lots off the
  lake and I put it away. You were getting a good
  interest there at one time.
• I am in a better position because I still have a
  few investments that are paying and a dollar or
  two in the bank.

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Good places to grow old?

• Communities are differentially supportive to
  different groups of seniors.

• Communities are good places to grow old when
  there is a positive relationship between peoples
  needs resources community assets.

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Community Active SeniorsBest fit with
community occurs when

• Communities are friendly and welcoming.
• There are opportunities to be socially active
  keep busy.

• Service centres are within reasonable driving
  distance.
• There are opportunities to volunteer, be
  recognized and appreciated, build community
  capacity.
• There is a large pool of volunteers.

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Stoic SeniorsBest fit with community occurs
when

• The community allows them to continue to be
  productive.
• There are proximate family, friends, good
  neighbours.
• They are close to adequate basic, local services.
• There are employment opportunities for their
  adult children.

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Marginalized Seniors Best fit with community
occurs when

• Community has stable population, homogeneous
  economic status, affordable housing, employment
  opportunities for family nearby.

• Proximate family/close friends who can monitor
  without intruding.
• Reasonable driving distance to affordable
  goods/services.

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Frail SeniorsBest fit with community occurs
when

• There are family members, friends, community
  members nearby to provide manage care.
• There are local health social services to
  support family friend carers.

• There are family, friends, community members
  nearby to provide manage care.
• The community is physically accessible.

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Supportive rural communities

• Older rural adults differ in their personal
  resources and in community resources that best
  support them.
• Age-friendly communities are about the fit.

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Contact
Research on Aging, Policies, Practice Room
3-02 Human Ecology Bldg. University of
Alberta Edmonton AB CANADA T6G 2N1 http//www.heco
l.ualberta.ca/rapp norah.keating_at_ualberta.ca jacq
uie.eales_at_ualberta.ca
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Rural ageing A good place to grow old?Edited
by Norah Keating

• PB 24.99 ISBN 978 1 86134 901 9
• HB 65.00 ISBN 978 1 86134 902 6
• 224 pages tbc May 2008
• Available from www.policypress.org.uk