The Supportive Network

Coping with Old Age

G. Clare Wenger

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781032074498
• eBook ISBN: 9781000455335
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Social Work

Much previous research on elderly people had focused on their problems, and had created an impression of a group of isolated individuals suffering from almost insurmountable social difficulties. Originally published in 1984, this study of the everyday lives of elderly people, and the sources of help and care available to them in the community at the time, made a special contribution by showing how they can and do make creative adaptations to the challenge of age, and by increasing our understanding of their informal networks of support.

The author looks not only at the role and availability of family, but also of friends, neighbours, voluntary associations and statutory services and the composite networks of support which these contacts form, noting differences related to gender, class and household composition. The detailed picture that she presents would be invaluable to those teachers, students and practitioners of social work concerned with the development of more community-based patterns of social work, as recommended by the Barclay Report, and to policy makers who needed to understand how sometimes strained natural support systems may be reinforced and maintained. The book also extends our knowledge of the normal lives of elderly people and will be of general interest to social gerontologists and network theorists in sociology and anthropology.

Part One BACKGROUND

Chapter 1 THE RESEARCH CONTEXT

Introduction

This is a study of how a sample of the elderly manage their day-to-day lives. It looks at how they gain access to a range of services, what problems they face and how they overcome them. It is an optimistic book which demonstrates that the majority of the elderly are able people who, together with help from their families and friends, find solutions to most of the difficulties they encounter as they get older.

The Question of Community

When we hear about old people we are usually told about their difficulties. This is because much research has focused on the problems of the elderly. This book is different in that it takes as its subject retired people living in their own homes in the community and for the most part coping capably and competently with their daily lives. It presents a picture of a well-supported elderly population and describes the informal help and support which is available to them. It seeks to encourage readers to stand back and look at the whole elderly population; to become aware of the majority who are well, happy, participating and contributing citizens. In this way, it hopes to challenge the negative stereotype of old age and while not denying that problems exist for some old people, to see these in the context of the broader range of experience. It is also hoped that by putting the problems in perspective their solution will be seen as more attainable.

The research, which was conducted in North Wales, was conceived originally as a first study of the United Kingdom rural elderly. The urban elderly in England had already been the subject of studies by Hunt (1978) and M. Abrams (1978,1980) and it was felt that ageing in rural areas might present particular difficulties for old people, especially in terms of access to services. It also sought to test the hypothesis that rural communities provide a more supportive environment for the elderly.

The rural community tends to be perceived as an altogether more benign environment, seen by many as a coveted haven of stability and intimacy in an increasingly urbanised and unstable world (Russell, 1975; White, 1974). This view originally was given substance by the writings of: Tönnies (1957) who characterised the rural ‘community’ as gemeinschaft as opposed to the urban ‘society’ gesellschaft; and Redfield (1956), who characterised these two ideal types as the sacred and the secular. The popular view has clung to the idealisation of the rural village, and many of the functionalist community studies reinforced the image of the stability and timelessness of rural communities (e.g. Rees, 1950; Williams, 1956). Later writers on rural areas in the United Kingdom have pointed out that some rural villages display characteristics which approximate gesellschaft (Brody, 1974; Frankenberg, 1957; Littlejohn, 1964; Pahl, 1965), while the gemeinschaftlich aspects of urban villages have also been noted (Young and Wilmott, 1957; Townsend, 1957; Rosser and Harris, 1965). Whether these findings represented a dilution of the intimacy and interdependence in rural communities as a result of urbanisation and increased mobility (both migration and commuting) and the levelling of cultural distinctions between town and country is not clear, but at least one writer has suggested that the benign image of rural life is nostalgia for an imagined past (Laslett, 1965).

Studies conducted in urban areas do not seem to support the thesis that cities are less caring environments. The findings of Isaacs et al. (1972), in a study in the city of Glasgow, found that admissions to geriatric units occurred only after the family had struggled to care in increasingly difficult situations and that amongst those elderly who died at home a significant proportion were bedfast for a year or more before death, cared for by relatives. Although now dated, Townsend’s (1957) study demonstrated the comparable integration of elderly people in London into networks of support. While one limited study indicates that less effective networks exist in the decaying inner city of London (Knight and Hayes, 1981), studies in the United States have pointed to the development of relationships of concern even among the most alienated elderly in single occupancy rooming houses (Shapiro, 1969). In other words, the indications are that commitment to caring is the norm, whether in an urban or rural environment, although there may be some variation according to the stability of the neighbourhood (Warren, 1980). There is some indication, however, that urban residents are more dependent on family resources, as opposed to other informal sources of care, than rural residents (Wenger, 1982). However, differences are more likely in terms of degree and style, rather than in terms of presence or absence.

In studies of rural communities, there is much evidence to support the widespread existence of neighbourliness (Arensberg, 1937; Jenkins, 1971; Rees, 1950). However, it has also been suggested that social relations also reflect not so much settlement type as stability (Gans, 1968), hence the findings of Young and Wilmott in Bethnal Green (1957) which demonstrate the importance of neighbourliness in the city. The increased mobility of the 1960s and 1970s may have changed this situation considerably. This also has particular relevance for the elderly, who demonstrate a desire to move from urban to rural (or seaside) areas thus adding to the social change of the host community (Golant, 1979; Karn, 1977). Underlying much of the concern expressed about the position of the elderly in today’s society is the implicit assumption that many of their problems tend to be urban problems: traffic, fear of crime, isolation, poor housing, and so on. On the other hand, in the field of rural deprivation, the elderly are pointed out as those most disadvantaged by problems of transport, access and inadequate services.

The current study contrasts with earlier studies in two significant dimensions. Previous studies of the elderly in the community have not paid specific attention to the various types and sources of help received, while studies of help have focused on dependent groups within the population. This research looks at help received and the sources of such help within the elderly population as a whole, including those who are dependent on such help and those where help is primarily expressive. Such expressive help of course is important in the context of increasing dependency.

Methodology

The data on which the book is based were collected in a cross-section of eight rural communities in North Wales, covering settlement types ranging from small nucleated towns (under 3,000), including two small seaside resorts with high proportions of retirement migrants, to a highly dispersed sheep-rearing area. The communities, on a wide range of outcome variables, demonstrate a high degree of similarity, the main differences being between incomers and long-term residents.

The research was conducted in two major phases. In Phase I a door-to-door census of occupied households, using rating assessors’ lists, was conducted. This method was chosen because experience had shown that electoral registers and family practitioner records are frequently out of date or, in the case of the former, do not always include all the resident elderly. Phase I made it possible to collect basic background data on all the elderly so that any subsequent sample could be checked for sampling error. Data were elicited on age, sex, marital status, household composition, place of birth, length of community residence and whether or not Welsh speaking. This last was important so that steps could be taken to ensure that all those who spoke Welsh would subsequently be approached by a bilingual interviewer and the interview conducted in the language of the respondent’s choice. Nearly three-fifths of respondents were Welsh speakers and 82 per cent of Welsh speakers were interviewed either wholly in Welsh (74 per cent) or at least half in Welsh (8 per cent) as they chose.

A Phase II sample was selected from the Phase I data. In this case, one person from each elderly household was selected in all communities except the three largest where half the elderly households were included. The sample was randomised for sex and household composition and the resultant sample and responding sample checked for representativeness against the Phase I data. Phase II consisted primarily of interviews in the respondent’s own home, following a questionnaire schedule (Appendix 1).

Both Phase I and Phase II data were elicited by interviewers recruited and trained by the research team. Before each phase a day’s training session was conducted for interviewers in an effort to standardise as far as possible interpretation and recording techniques. Interviewers were paid hourly, including travel and clerical time, plus a mileage allowance, since it was felt that the nature of the terrain and the characteristics of the sample population were such that this method of payment would ensure both equity and quality of returns. The performance of interviewers as reflected in the high standard of returns and the high response rate (87 per cent), it was felt, fully justified this decision.

In addition to objective and attitudinal data, interviewers in Phase II were requested to report verbatim comments of respondents and to write a filli interviewer’s report upon completion of the interviews. In only 2 per cent of interviews were respondents unco-operative and in eight out of ten instances no problems were encountered. However, with an elderly subject group some physical impairments are to be expected. In approximately one in ten instances hearing was a problem and in another one in ten interviews confusion, illness, speech, or other impediment caused some difficulty, but in spite of this 94 per cent of interviews were completed. A short form of the questionnaire (indicated in the Appendix by asterisks) was used in cases where the health or concentration of respondents made the full form impractical. Of the 534 (unweighted) interviews conducted, only 6 per cent were either short form or uncompleted.

The questionnaire covers data on residence and migration; accommodation and heating; household...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Part One Background
• Part Two Access
• Part Three Social Environment
• Part Four Support
• Part Five Signposts
• Appendix 1 University College of North Wales, Bangor. Elderly in the Community: Questionnaire
• Appendix 2 Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale
• References
• Index