Abstract
AbstractAs governments adapt to ‘active ageing’ policies, care services are increasingly oriented towards helping older adults to stay active in order to maintain their physiological and cognitive capacity. Day centres for the frail old adults are adding more planned activities to their conventional social programmes. Although evidence indicates that they may benefit from physical fitness sessions and brain training, little is known about the way in which the activation agenda influences social interaction among participants. The article aims to fill this knowledge gap by exploring how staff and participants manoeuvre between the new activation agenda and processes of coming to terms with the functional decline of ageing bodies. We draw on ethnographic data, collected in four day centres in Denmark and Norway, constituting participant observation of 18 days, 19 interviews with older participants and 18 interviews with staff members. With reference to the dramaturgical approach of Erving Goffman, we demonstrate how different fitness identities are negotiated on different social stages. Firstly, we identify a social stage at a crossroad between staff acting as motivators in training sessions and older participants as active contributors. We demonstrate how day-care staff assist participants in keeping up appearances as fit for one's age by recognising their performance and concealing flawed performances. Secondly, we identify a social stage where participants socialise with co-participants around the lunch table and other social events. Here the act of ‘keeping up appearances’ turns into a complex art whereby people strive to retain their fitness identity by comparing themselves with peers. Finally, based on observation ‘backstage’, we reveal how participants distance themselves from the functional decline of old age by claiming that they are fit enough. We conclude that day centres are contested sites for active-ageing policies.
Highlights
In response to an ageing population, governments around the world are embracing a policy strategy of ‘active ageing’ (World Health Organization, 2016)
Apart from aiming for maximum participation, wellbeing, and improved health and functioning, active ageing is seen as part of a cost-efficiency strategy for keeping frail participants at home as long as possible instead of in costly institutional care
Active ageing aims to extend the expectancy of a healthy life and improve the quality of life for all people as they age, including those who are frail older adults, disabled or in need of care (World Health Organization, 2016)
Summary
In response to an ageing population, governments around the world are embracing a policy strategy of ‘active ageing’ (World Health Organization, 2016). During the 1960s and 1970s, the infrastructure of tax-funded services for home-dwelling individuals expanded greatly This was warmly welcomed by older adults themselves and community care commenced (Vabø and Szebehely, 2012; Tretteteig et al, 2017). As the service coverage of long-term institutional care has declined (Szebehely and Meagher, 2018), community care services have increasingly targeted home-dwelling individuals with severe physical and cognitive health challenges. These services are profiled as interventions intended to enhance the capacity of older people to live independently at home. Day centres increasingly target older adults in need of rehabilitation and behavioural activation (Burch and Borland, 2001; Svidén et al, 2004; Doh et al, 2020) for the purpose of keeping them healthy and physically fit, and preserving their level of functioning (Hickerson et al, 2008; Iecovic and Biderman, 2013), including brain training for the optimisation of cognitive health (Libert et al, 2020)
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