This article addresses the question: What is the role of languaging – the shaping and organizing of higher mental processes through language – in emerging zones of proximal development (ZPDs) co-created by two adults? The two adults are a resident in a long-term care facility (Mike) and a researcher. A ZPD is an ongoing cognitive/affective activity in which learning and development occur as participants interact. This process is mediated by languaging. Through a microgenetic analysis of selected representative excerpts from 11 one-on-one sessions, we illustrate how the interactions between Mike and the researcher create a positive affective context which affords multiple opportunities for ZPDs to emerge. During the emergent ZPDs, we observe how languaging brings together the cognitive and affective components essential for the participant’s continued development. Over time, Mike reclaims lost expertise and takes on new complex cognitive challenges. Outcomes for Mike include both cognitive development and enhanced self-esteem.

This article presents a study that compared participation by elderly individuals living in the community according to primary transportation mode used, and estimated the association between transportation, personal factors, and environmental factors. Participants included 90 adults aged 65 and older (M = 76.3 years; SD = 7.7). They were classified according to their primary transportation mode: driver, passenger, public transport user, walk, or adapted transport/taxi user. Participation was measured with the Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique (CHART) and the Nottingham Leisure Questionnaire (NLQ). Overall, results indicated that drivers, public transport users, and walkers had higher participation levels compared to passengers and adapted transport/taxi users. This study suggests that clinicians should consider older adults’ use of transportation in an attempt to encourage and maximize their participation.

Purpose: The study purposes were twofold: (1) to explore barriers to pain management and those associated with implementing a pain management program in long-term care (LTC); and (2) to develop an interprofessional approach to improve pain management in LTC.

Methods: A case study approach included both qualitative and quantitative components. We collected data at two LTC sites using seven focus groups for the licensed nurses, unregulated care providers and physicians, and 10 interviews with other health care provider groups, administration, and residents. We reviewed documents and administered a short survey to study participants to assess perceptions of barriers to pain management.

Results: The findings revealed barriers to effective LTC pain management at the resident/family, health care provider, and system levels. We then developed a six-tiered model with proposed interventions to address these barriers.

Conclusions: This model can guide the development of innovative approaches to improving pain management in LTC settings.

This article examines, on the basis of longitudinal data from the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, the effects of health and employer-provided pensions on retirement decisions, which have not been studied simultaneously in the Canadian context. The results indicate that employer-provided pensions have substantial and significant incentive effects on retirement behaviour. Having poor health substantially increases the likelihood of entering retirement, by up to 25 percentage points. The results corroborate previous evidence regarding the relative importance of attenuation and justification bias in self-reported health measures. Further, the results confirm U.S. and European evidence that employer-provided pensions and health are significant determinants of retirement.

Among the older population in Canada, the majority of whom are women, incurable cancer is rampant. Having incurable cancer often implies suffering. Studies reveal that communication with one’s circle is therefore often arduous, leading us to believe that it can cause suffering. To our knowledge, there has been no research that specifically explores the suffering related to communication among older women with incurable cancer: this will be the objective of our article.

This exploratory qualitative research is in humanistic psychology. It is based on a phenomenological analysis of the conceptual categories that emerged from 19 semi-structured interviews among 10 women aged 65 years and over with incurable cancer.

The results reveal both the dynamic of silence, desired in order to prevent increased suffering, and sometimes imposed and a source of further suffering. They also reveal that the absence of listening, the imposition of silence, and the minimization of what these women say, also cause suffering. The consequences of disclosing one’s illness and its suffering are also explored.

In this multiple-case study, we engaged directors of care of Ontario long-term care (LTC) homes in semi-structured interviews designed to increase our understanding of the influence exerted by organizational and extra-organizational factors on two key aspects of organizational performance: operational efficiency and quality of care. We also examined the influence of these factors on the relationship between efficiency and quality. Through a review of the health services and organization and management literatures, four broad factors identified a priori as influential for one or both performance outcomes were used to guide our data collection: staff characteristics, facility characteristics, extra-organizational influences, and the function of volunteers. Our findings suggest that while both high efficiency and high quality of care are achievable, there are aspects of a home’s operations and realities associated with the LTC sector in Ontario that can make achieving both, simultaneously, exceedingly challenging.

The purpose of this study was to better understand adjustment and life satisfaction in later life. In particular, it examined the contribution of leisure participation and motivation toward leisure in older people’s adjustment to their nursing homes and their satisfaction with life.. Study results underlined the contribution of participation in leisure activities both to the adaptation of an elderly person to his residence and to life satisfaction. In terms of adaptation to the residence, participation in recreational activities exhibited this mediational sequence: leisure participation → self-determined motivation for leisure → adjustment to nursing homes. This suggests that leisure participation has an indirect effect on older people’s adaptability. Various practical implications of this research emerge for the development of future recreational programs in nursing homes to promote seniors’ adaptation.

This repeated measures study examined undergraduate students’ beliefs about aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the cognitive, social, and physical domains. Students rated typical 25-year-olds (young target), typical 75-year-olds (old target), and typical institutionalized persons with AD (AD target) on 46 statements about cognitive, physical, and social abilities. Beliefs about aging were found to be generally negative in the cognitive and physical domains but positive in the social domain, consistent with the age-stereotyping literature. Interestingly, by comparing ratings of old and AD targets, beliefs were found to be generally negative in the cognitive and social domains but positive in the physical domain. AD is perceived to be a disease primarily of the mind, but in comparison to differences expected with aging, physical prowess is enhanced. Documenting beliefs, a first step toward modifying stereotyped behaviour, could have significant effects on the health and well-being of older adults and persons with AD.