Understanding The Person In Context

We will use innovative social science research methods to understand how people plan for or manage the challenges posed by changes in physical and mental function as they age and in the context of social support, personal financial circumstance, community resources and statutory services.

What are our intentions?

An understanding of the circumstances, needs and priorities of people in later life in the context of families and communities is pivotal for ACRC research. This work package will ensure that we keep the person in later life at the heart of all research, as well as delivering new academic insights and contribution to social theory. There will be direct impact in relation to the focus of other research work packages. The findings will be of direct value to many other stakeholders, for example by better understanding decision-making at times of transition between stages of later life.

Why is this important?

Almost all of us will be carers and cared for at different times of our lives, but we need to understand better how individuals and their families experience later life and the care associated with it. Highlighting an approach to care that promotes continuing social participation and active citizenship, our ambition is to help maintain quality of life and sense of self for the individual as they experience different stages of later life, ensuring we understand the context and the physical, social and economic environments that are needed to provide this. ACRC funding provides a near-unique opportunity to generate an understanding of the experience of transitions and care in later life.

How will we achieve this?

This work package is based in a set of complementary studies described below. The research will apply social science research methods and follow a carefully selected group of participants over three years, with a possibility of extending to five years. Using a variety of methods, we will generate one data set for the whole work package to facilitate cross-study comparison and analysis. We will take a community case study approach, identifying 9 or 10 geographically and socioeconomically diverse communities in Scotland and England. Within each community, we will seek participants aged 50 and upwards with varying individual circumstances and will work to compare their experience and perceptions. Data collection will use co-creative and participatory approaches to ensure that we actively involve people in later life, their care partners and professionals.

The five underlying studies reflect different ways of focusing on experience of later life:

• Personal Projects: By examining what people are seeking to achieve in their lives (big or small), we can better understand what contributes to meaningful quality of life and, by exploring how the wider environment helps or hinders these projects, we can understand how better to support people to maintain their sense of self and purpose.
• Ageing in Place Successfully: will explore how people in later life negotiate the complexity of health and social care provision within, and outside, of their home, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of how best to achieve successful ageing in place.
• Understanding Care Transitions: will take a lifecourse approach to personal projects, to explore change over time, including: how societal mandates (e.g. protecting the vulnerable) enable and disable the individual, and the consequences of choices made for individual autonomy and sense of self; how mutual responsibilities are negotiated over time; and how participants might flourish, while managing risk in the face of an intrinsically uncertain environment.
• Understanding Informal Care Networks: will develop rich understandings of how value in informal later life care is understood and constructed and how these could map into emerging personal socio-ecologies and to understand how data-driven technologies may support healthier, informal networks.
• Images of Care: will capture, challenge, and change perspectives around ageing and care through images submitted and narrated by members of the general public, selected communities and relevant stakeholders.

Meet the Team: Understanding the Person in Context

Workpackage Lead - Professor Heather Wilkinson

Heather Wilkinson is Professor of Dementia Practice and Participation and the director of the Edinburgh Centre for Research on the Experience of Dementia. She is also deputy director of the Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC) and the Academy for Leadership in the ACRC. She has a longstanding involvement in qualitative dementia research and activism and is also a trainee psychotherapist. 

Find out more about Heather Wilkinson on their profile page

Senior Research Fellow - Dr Sue Lewis

Sue Lewis is an ethnographer and Senior Research Fellow (Gender, Care, Families and Work) in the School of Social and Political Science. Her expertise includes co-production research on health and inequalities with communities of place and of interest. 

Find out more about Sue on their profile page.

Personal Projects ​- Professor Catharine Ward Thompson

Catharine Ward Thompson is Professor of Landscape Architecture and Director of OPENspace research centre, with a focus on inclusive access outdoors and salutogenic environments, at the University of Edinburgh. 

Find out more about Catharine Ward Thompson on their profile page

Ageing in Place​ - Professor Dame Louise Robinson

Louise Robinson is an academic GP, is Regius Professor of Ageing And Professor of Primary Care and Ageing at Newcastle University. She leads one of three national Alzheimer Society Centres of Excellence in Dementia Care Research.

Find out more about Louise Robinson on their profile page

Ageing in Place​ - Professor Katie Brittain

Katie Brittain is Professor of Applied Health Research & Ageing in the Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University. Her research interests focus on how aspects of the physical, social and technological environment pose challenges and opportunities for older people and their wider community.

Find out more about Katie Brittain on their profile page

Ageing in Place - Dr. Andrew Kingston

A Chartered Statistician with a PhD in statistical epidemiology, Andrew uses complex longitudinal data and advanced statistical techniques to understand how health outcomes unfold over time. His principal area of technical interest relates to statistical methods that are applicable to complex longitudinal data that have the capacity to identify temporal trends and how factors impact/shape those trends. His mathematical expertise centres on methodology used to analyse longitudinal continuous and categorical data and microsimulation.

Find out more about Andrew on their profile page

Ageing in Place Research Assistant - Emma McLellan

Emma joined Newcastle University in November 2010 and has since worked on several research projects within the Population Health Sciences Institute. Her research experience has predominantly involved people aged over 60 years, people living with dementia and their families, and has also included being part of a global research project into dementia care in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Qualitative research methods are her primary focus, with experience of ethnography, focus groups and interviews.

Emma is currently involved in a longitudinal qualitative research project, 'Ageing in place successfully: exploring factors which facilitate and hinder independent living with age'.

Find out more about Emma McLellan on their profile page

Transitions in Care​ - Professor Linda McKie

Linda McKie is Executive Dean for the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy at King's College, London. She is also a Visiting Professor in Gender Studies at the University of Helsinki. Across several decades her research has considered care, caring and the multiple interfaces of caring and working. Linda is also concerned with the use of evidence in policy making and evaluation, working with colleagues across philosophy, social policy and sociology.

Find out more about Linda on their profile page.

Value in Care - Dr. Larissa Pschetz

Larissa Pschetz is a Lecturer in Design Informatics, Programme Director of Product Design, and Edinburgh Futures Institute Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on design-led methods to explore the socio-economic impact of data-driven technologies.

Find out more about Larissa Pschetz on their profile page

Value in Care & Images of Care - Professor John Vines

John Vines is Chair of Design Informatics in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, and is Co-Director of the Institute for Design Informatics. His research is in the field of human-computer interaction, where he studies the lived experience of digital and data-driven technologies and uses participatory methodologies to design new technologies that have social impact and value.

Find out more about John Vines on their profile page

WP4/WP6 Research Fellow - Dr Nuša Farič

Nuša studied at the University of Glasgow (BSc Hons Psychology), UCL (MSc Health Psychology), and PhD (Health Psychology and Informatics for the UCL Institute of Health Informatics). She has experience working in academia, private and public healthcare, medical communications industry and consumer health, in multidisciplinary teams using mixed-methods approaches and has interests in psychology, health psychology, AI, femtech, women's health, health content on Wikipedia and innovative health solutions. Her role is a  joint role across WP4 and WP6.