Risk time framing for wellbeing in older people: a multi-national appreciative inquiry
| Published date | 08 January 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-12-2016-0060 |
| Date | 08 January 2018 |
| Pages | 44-53 |
| Author | Charlotte Laura Clarke,Mike Titterton,Jane Wilcockson,Jane Reed,Wendy Moyle,Barbara Klein,Sandra Marais,Glenda Cook |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Mental health education |
Risk time framing for wellbeing in
older people: a multi-national
appreciative inquiry
Charlotte Laura Clarke, Mike Titterton, Jane Wilcockson, Jane Reed, Wendy Moyle,
Barbara Klein, Sandra Marais and Glenda Cook
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore the experience of older people and their sense of
developing wellbeing, including consideration of the strategies they employ to respond to perceived risk.
Design/methodology/approach –An Appreciative Inquiry study was used, which collected data with
58 participants in focus group and individual interviews. Interviews focussed on ways in which older people in
South Africa, Australia, Germany and the UK understand and seek to maintain wellbeing.
Findings –The changing time horizons of older people lead to perceptions of risk and concerns that
embrace societal as well as individual concerns. Often, this leads to a sense of societal responsibility and
desire for social change, which is frustrated by a perceived exclusion from participation in society.
Social implications –In mental health practice and education, it is imperative to embrace the shift from
ageist concerns (with later life viewed as risky and tragic in itself ) towards a greater sensitivity for older
people’s resilience, the strategies they deploy to maintain this, and their desire for more control and respect
for their potential to contribute to society.
Originality/value –Variation in time horizons leads to changes in temporal accounting, which may be
under-utilised by society. Consequently, societies may not recognise and support the resilience of older
people to the detriment of older people as individuals and to the wider society.
Keywords Wellbeing, Risk, Temporality, Resilience, Ageing, Old
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Why and how people stay healthy in the face of adversity (Antonovsky, 1979, 1987) has
generated much interest in “resilience”–defined by Cicchetti (2003) as a “dynamic
developmental process reflecting evidence of positive adaptation despite significant life
adversity”(p. 20). Despite calls for greater research attention to resilience and adversity over the
lifespan (Chase-Lansdale et al., 2004; Clarke et al., 2016), significant gaps in our knowledge of
older adults and how they understand and negotiate risk and resilience remain. In this paper
there is a focus upon the orientation to risk and resilience of older people, with particular
reference to the impact of past and future orientations (or “time framing”, Brown et al., 2013),
to perceptions of adverse events and desired outcomes.
Resilience in old age
Traditionally old age is seen as a downward curve with losses, declines and assumptions that older
people are disinterested and disengaged in wider society, but studies have found that older people’s
strengths and abilities can be enhanced (Browne et al., 2009), identifying com plex interactions
between personal biography, social and historical forces. Titterton (2011) suggests that personal risk
management and resilience is enhanced because of adversity rather than despite adversity.
Received 17 December 2016
Revised 12 April 2017
Accepted 3 June 2017
Since the time of writing this article
Jane Reed regrettably died.
The authors affiliations can be
found at the end of this article.
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THE JOURNAL OF MENTALHEALTH TRAINING, EDUCATION AND PRACTICE
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VOL. 13 NO. 1 2018, pp.44-53, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1755-6228 DOI 10.1108/JMHTEP-12-2016-0060
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