Researchers:
- Fiona Cowdell
- Judith Dyson
Project Aims:
- To undertake a co-creation study with older people living in a northern city in the United Kingdom
- To explore maintenance of health and well-being in older age
- To explore the application of co-creation with an older community population
- To evaluate the process and inform future work.
The study was conducted during 2017 by a project team of 10 lay community dwelling older people and four university researchers. Findings demonstrate that state of mind and of health were key to well-being in older age. Feeling safe, comfortable and pain free were important along with being able to adapt to change, have choice and a sense of personal freedom. Social connectedness was seen as the keystone to support healthy behaviours. Rather than developing new interventions, there was a perceived need to connect people with existing resources and provide a human ‘bridge’ to address barriers to accessing these. The co-creation process proved productive, even when undertaken on a small scale. The scope of the project needs to be realistic, to use diverse methods of recruitment and skilled facilitators, and to prepare well in terms of accessibility, simple systems and appropriate information provision.
Funder: Hull NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (research conducted independently)
Glover L, Dyson J, Cowdell F, Kinsey D. Healthy ageing in a deprived northern UK city: A co‐creation study. Health & Social Care in the Community. 2020 Nov;28(6):2233-42.
Find out more about the Centre for Social Care, Health and Related Research