Links and gaps : ageing as policy, practice, research and lived experience
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(Published version)
Date
2004
Authors
Barnett, Kate
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thesis
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Abstract
Ageing policy can be conceptualised as operating at two levels - one focusing on the development of programs, services and other support interventions that will be needed by some older people, and the other having a broader focus, being designed to affect the way in which older people are valued by the society of which they are members, and the limits prescribed for their role and place in that society. Each level is mutually reinforcing because of the underpinning value system by which each is shaped. However, ageing policy typically sets its boundaries around the first level, and this means that it is often competing with, or even negated by, policies in other areas (for example, employment policy).
Recent ageing policy represents a shift away from a view of older people as a marginalised and dependent group to one of 'positive' ageing, but the impact of this policy shift is limited by widespread ageist attitudes and expectations. The promotion of 'positive' ageing without a whole-of-government initiative is not sufficient to generate the necessary change. Ageing policy is constrained because it continues to be framed within aged care service parameters and is focused on individuals rather than on achieving systemic and structural change.
This thesis has been designed as a 'policy case study' and explores the issues of linkages and gaps - between the individual perspective of ageing, the policy perspective, the research perspective and the aged care system perspective. One component involves primary research, based on semi-structured interviews with 300 people to identify their attitudes to ageing and expectations for old age. This component is a response to a substantial gap in the existing ageing research literature which is dominated by the aged-care professionals' view of growing older (and is, therefore, focused on problems, loss and marginalisation). The second component involves a review of current ageing policy nationally, and in one State (South Australia, the location for my sample).
The findings are analysed within a number of theories of the social policy process, particularly the implementation component, in order to better understand the reasons for the gap between ageing policy and aged care practice. This analysis includes an overview of the impact of the evidence-based policy movement and the continuing gap between research and policy - again applied to the ageing field.
Two related conclusions emerge from the study. One conclusion is that the boundaries of ageing policy must extend beyond the aged care portfolio in order to promote ageing as a life long series of transitions. This requires a multidisciplinary approach to policy that acknowledges a range of needs as well as strengths, and a whole-of-government approach that assigns responsibility for the well-being of older people to social systems rather than to individual older people. The second conclusion is that policy needs to be embedded in all portfolio areas in order to provide a coordinated and holistic focus for ageing issues, and to address the most fundamental of all challenges in the area of ageing, - the need to minimise the impact of ageist attitudes.
School/Discipline
School of Social Work and Social Policy
Dissertation Note
Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2004.
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Copyright 2004 the author. This item has been reproduced by the University of South Australia here in good faith. Attempts to contact original copyright owner(s) are ongoing. We would be pleased to hear from copyright owner(s).
Description
xii, 287 leaves