The reablement approach is becoming a popular social and health-care model in many Western countries, providing support strategies for older people experiencing impairment. Reablement programmes have been criticised for a lack of theories, explicating the understanding of the problem that it is intended to address, i.e. ageing and impairment in old age. We need to discuss the inherent theories in intervention programmes to question taken-for-granted assumptions about not only what works, but also how these assumptions affect the sociocultural models of ageing. Theories on successful ageing have been suggested as underpinning reablement. This article aims to present and discuss theories of successful ageing compared to key principles, components and outcomes in reablement. A medical and epidemiological, a psychological and a sociocultural theoretical approach to successful ageing are included. Contemporary reablement programmes mirror medical and psychological theories of successful ageing, including models of ageing that are associated with continuity, optimisation, selection, individuality and goal orientation. Most reablement programmes do not address sociocultural perspectives on ageing. As older people experience impairment in a pertinent liminality within and between the sociocultural values of the third and fourth age, it is important for reablement programmes and practice to consider the theoretical assumptions and underpinning theories of ageing and how to help older people balance between optimising capacity and accepting losses in their everyday life.

The literature on older migrants often focuses on identifying the characteristics of ethnic groups that constitute ‘barriers’ for members of these populations to access care. This paper offers an alternative conceptualisation of access to care, by combining relational approaches to place and the notion of super-diversity. From this perspective, ‘access to care’ is perceived as an outcome of an individual's embeddedness in relationships of care in urban places. The objective of the study is to identify relationships of care that facilitate access to aged care for older first-generation migrants. Thirty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with older migrants who were residents of Nijmegen or The Hague, The Netherlands. All interviewees had accessed home care, home aid and/or day care. Both relationships with minority-specific services and informal relationships of care, particularly those within local minority communities, were found to facilitate access to aged care. Past experiences with health and social care were also found to influence current relationships with formal care providers. This study, therefore, suggests that policy makers and care organisations should build long-term positive relationships with new and incoming migrant groups. In addition, it argues that policy makers and care providers should identify locally relevant shared migration-related (rather than ethnic) identities around which communities can be mobilised and targeted with appropriate services.

This review updated a previous review [Gaugler JE (2005) Family involvement in residential long-term care: a synthesis and critical review. Aging and Mental Health 9, 105–118] and focused on dementia. Fourteen years of development in family involvement with care homes following placement of a relative was explored. The review aimed to investigate two questions: (1) What types of involvement do families have with care homes following placement of people living with dementia? (2) Which factors influence family involvement with care homes? PsycINFO, MEDLINE and CINAHL Plus were searched for publications between January 2005 and December 2018. Thirty-three papers representing 30 studies were included. Papers were appraised using a quality rating tool designed for use with mixed study designs. Studies were of a reasonable quality though some weaknesses included single-site samples, high attrition rates and poor reporting. Twenty-eight papers highlighted types of involvement including collaboration, family–staff relationship development, decision making and visiting. Twenty-five papers pertained to factors influencing involvement, which included outcome of care quality evaluation, wish for recognition and sense of integration into the care team. Type of family involvement has changed over time with increased emphasis on families’ desire for partnership, to be active rather than passive advocates, and to focus on care monitoring and evaluation. Seven themes of family involvement activities are featured and a non-linear process is proposed. When compared to patient and family-centred care principles, an analysis of family involvement types found good fit overall and potential for framework improvements. Over 30 diverse factors influence inter-family variation in the level and nature of family involvement. Consideration of these factors and resolution of the gaps in evidence, including intergenerational and cultural concerns, can improve care home facilitation of family participation. This dementia-specific review is a comprehensive timely complement to Gaugler's seminal work about older adults in care.

This study examines the effects of own and spousal health on transitions in loneliness over time among married middle-aged and older adults in China, and explores the possible gender differences in these effects using data from the three waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011–2015). The sample includes 6,422 men and 6,391 women who were married and aged 45 and older at the baseline survey. Middle-aged and older adults with poorer physical and emotional health statuses are more likely to transition into and less likely to transition out of loneliness in a two-year period. Spouse's emotional health also affects both types of transition in loneliness and spouse's functional limitation affects transition into loneliness through spouse's emotional health. In addition, for married men, their own functional limitation is significantly associated with their transitions into and out of loneliness. For married women, their spouse's functional limitation is significantly associated with their transition into loneliness and this is mainly through its association with spouse's emotional health. Also, for married women, their spouse's emotional health is significantly associated with their transition out of loneliness. Social interventions to reduce feelings of loneliness need to take a couple approach and consider both spouses’ health problems and how they may affect their daily activities and their interactions with each other and with others.

Individuals with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias often require substantial support from other people. Much of the care-giving is from family members who eventually experience physical, emotional and financial stress, depression and fatigue. In Uganda, families are a cornerstone in providing care to individuals with dementia. However, little is known about the psychosocial supports available to the care-givers in their care-giving role. We assessed the psychosocial supports available to care-givers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias in southwestern Uganda. We conducted 34 in-depth interviews at three referral hospitals at which care-givers identified by the treating clinicians were approached for informed consent. The interviews were conducted until thematic saturation was reached, and the interviews were translated and transcribed. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse the data. Care-giver supports were structured into two major themes: medical supports utilised and supports beyond the medical care system. Medical supports highlighted information provided by medical professionals. Supports beyond the medical care system included emotional and instrumental supports provided by religious leaders, the local communities and family members. Care-givers for individuals with dementia in southwestern Uganda receive educational support from medical practitioners, and unstructured emotional and instrumental supports from the family and community.

We present a meta-evaluation of the literature on the impacts of active labour market policies for unemployed people over 50, extracting 82 impacts for analysis. The meta-evaluation includes only impact evaluations that examine both a group of beneficiaries and a control group of comparable non-beneficiaries. On average, we find that active policies have a slightly negative effect (−0.8 percentage points) on the probability of unemployed people over 50 finding a job and that this negative effect disappears 24 months after policy implementation. However, this effect is very different when disaggregated by policy type. Direct job creation policies have a clear negative effect (−3.9 percentage points), and training policies have a positive average effect, either in isolation (2.4 percentage points) or when combined with search assistance or counselling (1.7 percentage points). We also find slight differences by gender, with the effect of active policies being greater for women than for men. These results have important implications, given that the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have made active policies the cornerstone of their efforts to improve the re-employment of older people. Our results support training policies, either in isolation or in combination with search assistance and counselling. The greatest impacts are obtained after 12 months of policy implementation.

In light of a large proportion of older workers leaving the German labour market in the near future, policy makers aim to extend working lives to ensure sustainability of the social security system. In this context, safe and healthy working conditions are considered a precondition for encouraging employment participation. To understand better the role of the work environment in pre-retirement years, we draw upon an established model of five job quality profiles for the German ageing workforce. We explored seven-year profile development and linked selected manual and non-manual job quality trajectories to the motivation to work (MTW) using data from the 2011, 2014 and 2018 assessments of the lidA cohort study (valid N = 2,863). We found that older workers shifted to physically less-demanding profiles. Individual profile stability was prevalent among one-third of the workers. In 2018, there was a higher MTW when job quality remained favourable or improved early, while later improvements were associated with lower MTW. Early deterioration of job quality was associated with lower MTW levels among workers with non-manual trajectories only. The results highlight the dynamic job quality situation of the older German workforce and the importance of adopting a person-centred perspective when investigating working conditions and its effects. They further underline the need to consider quality of work when designing and implementing strategies to extend working lives.

There is growing recognition of the importance of dignity and support with eating as markers of high-quality and older-person-centred hospital services. We use data on these markers from the national Adult Inpatient Survey for England to build up statistical evidence on older people's experiences. We find that poor and inconsistent experiences of being treated with dignity and respect, and of receiving support with eating, affect a substantial proportion of inpatients across the vast majority of acute hospital trusts. There has been remarkably little change over time, although small improvements provide some grounds for optimism relating to policy developments in the period following the Francis Inquiry. Amongst people over 65, the prevalence of inconsistent and poor experiences of dignity and support with eating was higher amongst the ‘oldest of the old’ (inpatients aged over 80), individuals who experience a long-standing limiting illness or disability, and women. The highest rates of prevalence were observed amongst disabled women over 80. Perceptions of inadequate nursing quantity and quality, and lack of choice of food, stand out from logistic regression analysis as having consistent, large associations with lack of support with eating. These factors provide potential policy levers since they are within the control of hospitals to a certain extent. In drawing lessons from our analysis for inspection, regulation and monitoring, we highlight the importance of inequalities analysis – including systematic disaggregation and separate identification of at risk sub-groups (e.g. older disabled women) – rather than relying on a ‘population average approach’.

The dystopian fiction genre within Western media has historically highlighted the flaws associated with societal attempts to achieve an unattainable ideal – or utopia. Through storytelling, these texts highlight the present issues in society, and among them, readers find deeply concerning messages about dehumanisation and oppression. The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil by Stephen Collins is uniquely placed within this larger genre due to the exceptional use of negative space; that is, the text communicates multiple meanings through what Collins includes and does not include. The following article engages in a deep reading of The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil through textual analysis to interpret and describe the message Collins communicates highlighting institutional ageism and bereavement. Consideration for the use of both negative and positive space within narrative construction reveals a story that encourages societal and social change to better care for the mentally ill, geriatric population.

This paper aims to develop a sensory methodological framework to explore older user's landscape experience. Applying empirical experience in Australian aged-care facilities, it addresses a methodological gap in the current literature to help move beyond the current taken-for-granted approaches such as interviews, cognitive mapping, behavioural observation and visual methods. We propose a more holistic method which enables the exploration of older people's in situ environmental experience. The multisensory framework we propose here is based on the first author's doctoral fieldwork experience that took place in two aged-care facilities in Brisbane, Australia. Findings suggest this framework facilitates an understanding of users’ olfactory, auditory and visual responses to the physical environment, and promotes a deeper engagement with the landscape. We argue that this is essential to promoting good landscape design which genuinely connects with older people's needs.