Means-Tested welfare policies and the quiet fear of poverty amongst older people: lessons from the UK

Objectives: Elder abuse and neglect is an increasing concern that adversely affects the health and well-being of older people in most societies. The purpose of this paper is to describe the psycho-social impact of elder mistreatment on the health and well-being of older Korean people living in New Zealand.Method: Data were collected from in-depth interviews. The lived experiences of elder abuse and neglect were studied with 10 older people who were, or who had been, mistreated in their family context. To analyse the data collected, a combined analysis approach was employed using traditional code-based techniques and a concept-mapping method.Results: The findings of the study show that the effects of elder mistreatment were complex and multidimensional. The older persons who were mistreated in family settings experienced a range of emotional, psychological distress and physical symptoms. Many of them identified ‘Hwa-byung’ (literally anger disease) as a health issue associated with suppressed emotions of anger, demoralisation, heat sensation and other somatised symptoms.Conclusion: Elder abuse and neglect is a traumatic life event that has considerable psycho-social impacts on older people experiencing the problem. It is important to recognise the power of multidimensional challenges caused by elder mistreatment in health and well-being.

Prelude: 2020 in Words Each year the Australian National Dictionary Centre, based at the Australian National University (ANU), selects “a word or expression that has gained prominence in the Australian social landscape”. In 2020, “iso” took out first place, with “bubble” following close behind. On the Centre’s website, Senior Researcher Mark Gywnn explains that “iso” was selected not only for its flexibility, merrily combining with other words to create new compound words (for instance “being in iso”, doing “iso baking” and putting on “iso weight”), but also because it “stood out as a characteristically Aussie abbreviation” (Australian National Dictionary Centre). Alongside the flexibility of the word “iso” and its affinity with the Australian English tradition of producing and embracing diminutives, iso’s appeal might well be that it does not carry the associations that the word “bubble” has acquired in the time of COVID. While COVID-19 has put many of us in various forms of “iso”, the media imagery—and indeed experiences—of many older people living in residential aged care during COVID has shifted some of the associations of the word “bubble”, heightening its associations with fragility and adding vulnerability and helplessness into the mix. 2020 was not the first time “bubble” has appeared in the Australian word of the year list. In 2018 “Canberra bubble” took out the first spot. What interests us about bubble’s runner-up position behind “iso” in 2020’s word of the year is what this might also reveal about the way ideas of independence vs dependence, and youthfulness vs aged underlie and inflect new usages of these words. In the era of COVID-19, the buoyancy of “iso” is tied to its association with a particular kind of Aussie-youth-speak, while the sense of heaviness and negative resonances that now accompany the word bubble are tied to its associations with the experiences of those in aged care. In 2020 “bubble”—a word that has primarily been associated with children and the child-like (bubble baths, bubble tea)—took on new associations and overtones. As the pandemic unfolded, “bubble” also became intertwined with media depictions of and popular discourses around those in later life, many of whom experienced “iso” much more brutally than the easy-Aussie-speak of “iso” would convey. There is much less play—and a lot less mingling—in the Australian National Dictionary Centre description of new uses of the word “bubble”: “a district, region, or a group of people viewed as a closed system, isolating from other districts, regions, or groups as a public health measure to limit the spread of Covid-19”. There have been various kinds of “closed system[s]”, isolated groups and regions constructed in the management of the pandemic, but there is one group—and one kind of location—that has been “bubbled” in quite specific ways. While the sectioning off and isolating of older age people in the name of protecting their health has often been ineffectively—and in some places, disastrously—managed in terms of disease prevention, it has been very effective in reducing the rights and voices of those it acts in the name of. Speaking from Ireland but commenting on the situation in the UK and parts of Europe, Anne Fuchs and colleagues write that “the discursive homogenization and ‘frailing’ of the over 65s meant that people in this category were an object of public discourse rather than participants in the debate” (2). In many instances the “bubbling” of older people, particularly those in aged care residences, has served to both isolate and render largely voiceless the residents of these care homes. Although the global impact of COVID-19 on the aged has been significant, including across many affluent societies, it has been particularly disastrous in Australia. At the time of writing (1 January 2021), of the 909 COVID-related deaths in Australia to date, 693 have been of people aged 80 or over: in other words, more than 75% of COVID-related deaths in Australia have been of people over 80. According to the federal government’s records of COVID-19 deaths by age group and sex, 685 of these deaths have been of aged care residents. It is not surprising therefore that many speak of the heavy impact of COVID-19 on older people as a form of genocide. Public discourse and government policies and priorities around COVID-19 have thrown into relief and exacerbated some of the deeply troubling ways that older people, particularly those living in aged care residences, are not recognised or treated as “equal partners in our future” (Royal Commission into Aged Care 1). Both the management of and public discourse around COVID-19 have highlighted and escalated the forms of ageism, especially ageism around later life, that have become embedded in Australian culture. In late 2019 the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety released its Interim Report, titled simply Neglect. In the Foreword, the commissioners write: the Australian community generally accepts that older people have earned the chance to enjoy their later years, after many decades of contribution and hard work. Yet the language of public discourse is not respectful towards older people. Rather, it is about burden, encumbrance, obligation and whether taxpayers can afford to pay for the dependence of older people. (Royal Commission into Aged Care 1) Written and released before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Interim Report highlighted the “fundamental fact that our aged care system essentially depersonalises older people” (Royal Commission into Aged Care 6) and identified many ways “the aged care system fails to meet the needs of our older, often very vulnerable, citizens” (Royal Commission into Aged Care 1). In 2020 we saw some of the effects of these failures in the often disastrous mismanagement of disease transmission prevention in many aged care residences in Australia. Equally troubling, the resulting deaths have at times been accompanied by a general acceptance of the loss of so many in later life to COVID-19. The fact that these deaths are often regarded as somehow more inevitable, or as less significant than the deaths of others, is an indication of how deeply “Australia has drifted into an ageist mindset that undervalues older people and limits their possibilities” (Royal Commission into Aged Care 1). It assumes that one’s later-life years are of less significance and value (to oneself, to the community) than one’s younger years. At various times in the pandemic, sizable parts of the global population have been variously asked, advised, or required by their governments to remain within their household or residential “bubble”. These COVID-related “bubbles” are more buoyant for some. Jackie Gulland has written a feminist analysis of the ways that the UK COVID-19 lockdown rules are premised on “neo-liberal assumptions about the family as autonomous and sufficient for the provision of reproductive labour” (330). In many places the requirement to stay within one’s “household bubble” both assumes that the home is safe for all, and that most care and dependency requirements are provided and received within a household. As Gulland’s essay demonstrates, the idea of the household bubble constructs an image or idea of who and what constitutes a household, and which relationships “count”. Drawing on critiques of neo-liberal and able-ist ideas about autonomy by feminist and disability scholars, Gulland “shows how the failure of policymakers to take account of interdependency has made lockdown more difficult for carers and those in receipt of care” (330). In this essay we look at some of the ways that the required and/or imagined COVID-19 bubbles for people in later life are thought of differently to the COVID-19 bubbles that younger, and mixed age, households are imagined as forming. This is particularly the case, we argue, for those in aged care residences. Younger and mixed age COVID bubbles often include extended or linked households (as we will discuss below in relation to the idea of the compassionate bubble) and function as a bubble that can link and enclose. In contrast, COVID bubbles in and for aged care and those in later life, work to isolate and separate. They function as bubbles that close off and shut out, as if placing the older person and older people behind glass (in some cases, quite literally). Likewise, while the COVID-19 bubbles for the “general” population (a category from which those in later life are often excluded) are regarded as temporary structures that will in time be dissolved to re-allow social movement and intermingling, the later life and aged care COVID-19 bubble is imagined very differently. This is because it is overlaid upon a pre-existing conception of later life—and in particular the fourth age—as itself a kind of bubbled existence, a fragile state held somewhat separate and apart from the general population and moving inexorably toward death—a bubble that pops. Bubbling the Fourth Age The idea that later life can be divided into different stages and ages has a long history, although the shape, meaning and valuing of different ages in later life is historically specific. Back in the late 1980s the Cambridge historian Peter Laslett proposed that rather than falling into three main stages—childhood, adulthood and old age—there are in fact four stages and that “later life can be divided into a ‘third age’ and a ‘fourth age’” (Gilleard and Higgs, “The Fourth Age” 368). Laslett’s distinction between a third age (active and characterised by personal fulfillment) and a fourth age (for Laslett an age of infirmity) has become increasingly significant in both age studies and in the provision and imagining of aged care. While the third age is increasingly depicted as something that, when managed “successfully”, can expand and fill with rich experiences and rewards (assuming one has the economic and social privilege and mobility to embrace these r

This book provides new knowledge about the wellbeing, rights, and policies of older people in the Arctic in the times of changing Nordic welfare. Demographic ageing is taking place in an increasingly globalized world. At the same time, governments are in the process of decreasing the state’s responsibility of peoples’ well-being, and promoting marketization. The book analyses the effects of the changing politics and welfare policies on legal and human rights, services, and on the wellbeing of older people who are affected by the changes being made. It also gives voice to the older people to better identifying their welfare needs. The book demonstrates that there is a lack of political will to address both the negative consequences, and the challenges, of welfare change in the Arctic.

Background The global population is ageing and the need to promote health and well-being of this generation is essential. Co-creative practices can be solutions to welfare challenges in the health care sector and local policies. However, literature addressing co-creation of activities to promote health and well-being is sparse. The review aimed to identify health promotive activities co-created between the public and older people, the influence of co-creative activities on health and well-being of older people, and facilitators and barriers for doing co-creation. Methods We searched for peer-reviewed and grey literature in eight scientific and five non-scientific databases. Two reviewers independently screened publications for eligibility according to inclusion and exclusion criteria and extracted data. An inductive thematic content analysis was applied for the analysis. Results We included nineteen publications. Four themes related to co-creative activities emerged: “Social activities”, “Activities to create age-friendly environments”, “Discussions of healthy ageing”, and “Physical activities”. The co-creative activities influenced the overall well-being, and promoted active and healthy ageing, physical functioning, and quality of life. Identified facilitators for co-creation were the role of the facilitator, a supportive environment, recognition of competencies, while the main barriers were time and resources, and recruitment of participants. Conclusions Few studies have investigated co-creation of activities to promote health and well-being of older people. The included studies dealt with activities in any form and not merely social and physical activities co-created. Future co-creation of activities with older people should consider the role of facilitators, the environment in which the co-creation takes place and value time, resources, and competencies of participants. Key messages • Studies on co-creation of activities to promote health and well-being of older people is sparse and must be explored further. • Future research may focus on co-creation of social and physical activities to promote health and well-being of older people and consider known facilitators for co-creation.

Generic health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures have been used for estimating utility value, which is then used for calculating quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). HRQoL measures may not capture many of the relevant and important non-health aspects of quality of life. The well-being of older people (WOOP) instrument was first developed in the Netherlands. This study aimed to validate this new instrument among older people in China. WOOP was first translated into simplified Chinese (for use in Mainland China) by two experienced translators. From July to August 2022, a cross-sectional study was conducted on a convenience sample of 500 older people in Southwestern China. Older people who provided consent reported their demographic information and completed the simplified Chinese version of the WOOP instrument using a pencil and paper. The feasibility of WOOP was determined by the percentage of missing responses. Then, using the data without any missing responses, we examined the item response distributions, pairwise Spearman correlations, underlying factors, and known-group validity of WOOP. Among the nine items of WOOP, three had more than 10% missing responses. The response distributions of the nine items were overall good without signs of ceiling and floor effects. The correlations among the WOOP items were low. A two-factor exploratory factor analysis model suggested that the WOOP items can be categorized into either internal or external well-being items. Good known-group validity results were found. Some WOOP items may not be easily understood by a small proportion of rural residents. However, other results have suggested WOOP to be a valid instrument for measuring the well-being of the elderly in China. The availability of WOOP enables the measurement of well-being-related utility.

Demographic change affects the socio-economic development of any country. In Vietnam, the population and housing censuses from 1989 to 2019 showed an appreciable increasing proportion of the elderly in the total population and fast ageing pace. Older people have many difficulties in their life. Among them, only 27% have pensions or stable incomes, and the rest 73% live without pensions, facing many difficulties. Vietnam is a developing country, and social security policies are in the process of completion. Therefore, improving the social security system, as well as creating opportunities for active ageing and wellbeing for older people, was one of the strategic goals of the Long-Term Development Plan that Vietnam’s government has been carried out for more than half a century. In this article, the issues of demographic change, population ageing, social security system, social assistance and pension benefits as the actual sociological problem are studied by using quantitative methods and comparative analysis approach to confirm the research questions; the proposals made by the authors can be helpful for today’s reforming social security system in Vietnam and social policy making in context of ageing in Vietnam where a large number of elderly people do not have any social benefits.

Objective: To describe and compare the health status, emotional wellbeing, and functional status of older people in Uganda and South Africa who are HIV infected or affected by HIV in their families.Methods: Data came from the general population cohort and Entebbe cohort of the Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute, and from the Africa Centre Demographic Information System through cross-sectional surveys in 2009/10 using instruments adapted from the World Health Organization (WHO) Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE). Analysis was based on 932 people aged 50 years or older (510 Uganda, 422 South Africa).Results: Participants in South Africa were slightly younger (median age − 60 years in South Africa, 63 in Uganda), and more were currently married, had no formal education, were not working, and were residing in a rural area. Adjusting for socio-demographic factors, older people in South Africa were significantly less likely to have good functional ability [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0.72, 95% CI 0.53–0.98] than those in Uganda, but were more likely to be in good subjective wellbeing (aOR 2.15, 95% CI 1.60–2.90). South Africans were more likely to be obese (aOR 5.26, 95% CI 3.46–8.00) or to be diagnosed with hypertension (aOR 2.77, 95% CI 2.06–3.73).Discussion and conclusions: While older people's health problems are similar in the two countries, marked socio-demographic differences influence the extent to which older people are affected by poorer health. It is therefore imperative when designing policies to improve the health and wellbeing of older people in sub-Saharan Africa that the region is not treated as a homogenous entity.

Prevention of health deterioration is a key policy objective in Sweden informed by active and healthy ageing initiatives. However, the perspectives of older people with mobility and health limitations on current prevention initiatives are seldom gained meaning these initiatives may fail to align to with the priorities of people whose health has ostensibly already deteriorated. We aimed to explore older care-experienced people's perspectives on the topic of health deterioration prevention and highlight aspects that they think are important to prioritise. Eight older people with experience in giving or receiving formal or informal care were involved as lay co-researchers in a participatory action research project that involved recruiting 11 further older informants to participate in peer interviews or complete a logbook. In a series of 13, 2-h workshops held over 1 year, we undertook data generation, training, reflection and analytic activities inspired by framework analysis. The lay co-researchers found the topic of health deterioration to be negatively and narrowly focussed opting instead to pursue a focus on articulating aspects, or puzzle pieces, that influence the improvement of wellbeing. Six influential puzzle pieces (stigma, digitalisation, services, losses, meaning and interactions) were regarded as important to prioritise which together illustrated that wellbeing is continually shaped in an interplay with dominant, but manipulable, social norms. This study highlights how the language of active and healthy ageing, which pervades policy and practice, is imbued with ageist and ableist subtexts that can influence older people's wellbeing and lead to exclusionary experiences in society. We highlight wider societal trends, particularly digitalisation and effectivisation, whose negative impact on older people's wellbeing could be mitigated through inclusive co-design and resistance to normative influences. This project was initiated in dialogue with stakeholder representatives from pensioner organisations in a larger scale participatory action research project. The care-experienced lay co-researchers collaborated in all phases of this project-gaining funding, formulating research questions, planning the study design, generating data in peer interviews, analysing and interpreting data, disseminating findings, prioritising future research and co-authoring articles.

The life satisfaction and affective well-being of employed, unemployed and retired men and women aged between 50 and 74 were examined as a function of characteristics of their environment and the degree to which their current role was personally preferred. Early-retired and late-employed individuals had particularly high affective well-being. Role preference (e.g. to be in a job) was significantly associated with both indicators, with better well-being in those individuals who wanted to be in their current role. Both forms of well-being were a function of the features experienced in a role (opportunity for control, clarity, etc.), over and above the identification of role membership on its own, with the relationship between older people's role occupancy (employed, unemployed or retired) and well-being being mediated by perceived environmental characteristics.

The theoretical notion of caring is central to nursing practice, education and research. Caring is both a relational experience and interpersonal process. It encompasses the provision of expert nursing when addressing client needs and aims to culminate in positive health outcomes (Finfgeld-Connett, 2008). Integral to nursing care provision is holism and culturally safe or competent practice. Holistic nursing practice requires a multidimensional approach and attends to the physical, emotional, psychological and sociocultural needs of the person being cared for Enzman Hines and Gaughan (2017). Throughout the world caring, holistic and culturally competent nursing practice are key competencies required of students seeking registration as a nurse. This means providing care and appropriately meeting the care needs of all consumers of nursing services. Many consumers of nursing services are older, and it interests us how older people are represented in nursing and whether as a profession we provide the care we claim to this group. There is no denying the global numbers of older people has and will continue to increase exponentially throughout much of the 21st Century as the "baby boomer" generation reaches 65 years and beyond. A global ageing population will also mean increasing numbers of those aged 85 years and older including those living beyond 100. After reviewing a number of nursing texts and associated publications, it is evident that some of our literature portrays older people negatively. Not just one or two, but many texts utilised to socialise neophytes into the nursing profession take a deficit approach when referring to older people. This is surprising when many international health and social service policies promote a positive approach towards older people. For example, the New Zealand Healthy Ageing Strategy dictates health professionals recognise heterogeneity and promote inclusion when addressing the health and well-being of older people as they age (Associate Minister of Health, 2016). Nursing and indeed all healthcare providers must have awareness of, reflect on and be responsive to government policy. This is evident in the Nursing Council of New Zealand's (2015) requirement that all curricula leading to registration as a nurse be based on national health priorities and trends. In many western countries, these health priorities, as they relate to older people, include the promotion of health and well-being, supporting active ageing and ageing in place, eliminating ageism and promoting social inclusion. There is abundant evidence telling us that as people age there is a concomitant increase in health needs and care utilisation. Nurses therefore do need to be responsive to ill health and provide skilled nursing care to older people. However, this becomes problematic when the rhetoric of working with older people only ever positions this group within a deficit model that is either experiencing ill health or having the potential to be unwell. We believe this is to reflect an ageist view. Ageism is pernicious and pervasive within nursing and mirrors that of western society in general. Ageism describes the negative and stereotypic bias towards people based on age, resulting in a shift away from ageing being a natural process to becoming a physical, social and economic problem (Butler, 1995). Consequently, older people are biomedicalised and viewed as a set of problems that nursing and medicine need to fix. While none of us deny the importance of ensuring any health event occurring in older people is detected early and appropriately managed, it is problematic when this is the predominant way that we as nurses engage with this group. Biomedicine is reductionist in nature focusing on diagnosing and treating health events. The body is treated like a machine made up of a number of parts like those of a clock, and generally, those taking this position are not interested in the social or environmental factors influencing health (Bowling & Dieppe, 2005). While health professionals ascribing to a biomedical approach are definitely integral to providing health care to older people, as earlier presented it is problematic when this is the dominant view and is antithetical to the central tenets of nursing. A biomedical discourse supports the existence of an ageist discourse that positions older people as a homogenous group who are frail, dependent, cognitively impaired, at risk and an economic burden on society (Neville, Russell, Adams, & Jackson, 2016). You may well by now be questioning our assertions. The following examples are excerpts found in an influential and frequently used fundamental text for undergraduate nursing students. The first states that "50% of people over age 65 are edentulous (without teeth), and teeth that are present are often diseased or decayed" (Huynh, 2017; 953). Our second example assumes that older people are at risk of malnutrition and should be monitored "… prevention and correction of malnutrition in this age group is vital to optimise mobility and function…" (Marshall & Roberts, 2017; 1035). The use of "this age group" attributes the problem of malnutrition indiscriminately to all people over the age of 65 years. In New Zealand and Australia, this text is frequently used in the early stages of Bachelor of Nursing programmes, an influential time in a students' education when they are seeking to identify as a health professional. Consequently, statements like this could be perceived as an absolute truth and indoctrinate the student into viewing all older people as being in a constant state of decline. A scan of published gerontologically focused journal articles reveals the introduction sections will frequently cite that the world's population is ageing and along with this will be an increase in health issues. While there is some truth in these claims, it also homogenises older adults, implying that if you are older then you will experience ill health. As nurses, we have not been good at acknowledging or being interested in the vast number of older adults who are well and function independently. As authors of this editorial, we have attempted to publish articles that utilise strengths-based approaches to challenge the dominant ageist decline narrative dominating the nursing and health literature in relation to older people. There are instances where the process from submission to publication was challenged by reviewer feedback claiming that the manuscripts "have nothing to do with hospital or clinical nursing" and "how is this relevant to nursing, the participants are well." There is no denying this feedback positions nursing work within a biomedical discourse and is antithetical to claims of nursing as a holistic endeavour. Language is also important. Language both shapes and reflects our values, and influences our attitudes and care practices we offer to older people. For example, in many journal articles nurses indiscriminately refer to older people as "elderly." "Elderly" is a valid term that can be used to describe those older people who are frail, as long as these people have been formally assessed using a robust frailty measurement (Avers, Brown, Chui, Wong, & Lusardi, 2011). However, we contend that "elderly" is used indiscriminately in nursing scholarship, as an encompassing term for all older people and therefore through its use in this way positions all older people negatively. The Journal of Clinical Nursing recognises the negative connotations associated with using this term and now no longer accepts manuscripts that refer to older people as "elderly," instead preferring and supporting the use of terms such as "older people" or "older adults." Equally, references to the issue of global ageing in older populations as a "grey tsunami" are also inappropriate and should not be used in scholarly work. For some time, gerontologists have wanted to positively portray older people and challenge those 20th century stereotypical views of old age being equated with dependency, frailty, reduced cognition and needing to be constantly surveilled. We were part of that group who took up that challenge and think to some extent we have been successful; older adults are portrayed more positively in media advertising. However, more work remains. Many of those portrayed are highly active, engaged in society, usually heterosexually partnered, predominantly European, and are frequently surrounded by others, whether that be friends or family. Nursing has the opportunity to promote the diversity in older populations to ensure the inclusion of all older adults. Without question, globally the representation of older adults within society is going to continue to increase at rates never before witnessed. This editorial challenges us as nurses to refocus our attention back to the theoretical and philosophical foundations of our discipline. This includes the delivery of culturally competent and holistic care that transcends illness to empower and work with groups to achieve wellness as determined by older people themselves and reflected in international health policy. We also challenge nurses to actively participate in eliminating ageism and all other "isms" in its many different guises. This can easily be achieved by firstly, no longer utilising the term "elderly" and recognising that older adults exist outside of an illness experience. Secondly, nursing does not exist inside a political vacuum. Our role includes actively partnering with social service providers, government agencies and most importantly older people themselves to innovatively improve the ageing experience. As social gerontologists, we urge you to take some time to reflect on your practice. We hope that this editorial will be a catalyst for reflection, spark outrage, even agreement and dialogue. We welcome your views.

Well-being of Older People (WOOP): Quantitative validation of a new outcome measure for use in economic evaluations.

This book is about the ways digital technology can contribute to the welfare of older people. The Internet, mobile phones and other technologies have changed how we live and work. Such technologies also shape how services for older people are organised in ways that potentially place carers and older people at the centre of service provision. Telecare can make homes ‘smart’ so that they are more comfortable and less risky for people who can take advantage of devices that help make them independent members of their community. Digital Welfare is part of the broader project in Britain and elsewhere to adopt new information and communications technologies (ICTs) to organise and deliver health and social welfare services. This includes mundane technologies like an alarm to call for help to complex telecare ‘smart homes’ and electronic patient records. The intended and unintended consequences of such new technologies must be explored if we are to benefit from these innovations. Based on recent research this book seeks to highlight and examine the new opportunities and dilemmas that confront older people and all those concerned with their welfare in the network society. This edited collection provides original contributions from leading academics and researchers in the field to access the evidence for improved professional integration and user-centred health and social care services for older people arising from health informatics. Digital Welfare for the Third Age will be of interest to all those working with older people.

Purpose The steady rise in aged population has brought many challenges such as social, economic and health care that confront of the older people in their later life. The purpose of this study is to understand the nature of challenges among the older people and to assess the role of social security programmes for the welfare of the older people. The qualitative descriptive research has been applied in this paper. Design/methodology/approach The qualitative descriptive research has been applied in this paper. The study was conducted in a sample of 220 elderly living in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, using purposive sampling. The study was based on interviews. The order of questions and samples depended on the information flow during the interviews. The purposes of using the qualitative descriptive research in the present study are to satisfy the researcher’s curiosity and desire for better understanding to discuss the challenges faced by older people (these challenges are social vulnerability, poor economic conditions, poor health and no familiarity with government programmes), to understand the practicability of the study in extensive way and to explain why any phenomenon occurs or why older people face problems in later life. Findings The first finding demonstrates that the different challenges among older people such as social, economic and health challenges are affecting their way of life and sense of well-being and are fracturing their social bonds from the family and society. The second finding indicates that only 46.3% older people are benefitted from government pension programmes schemes. While the numbers of older people are unknown from other government welfare programmes such as health programmes, concession for older people and maintenance and welfare of parent and senior citizen act are not able to work properly due to lack of awareness and lack of proper communication between older people and government bodies. Originality/value This is an original work of the author. The research work is based on primary data that examine the nature of challenges such as health, economic and social challenges faced by older people in later life and impact of these problems on the well-being of older people.

Social isolation has become a growing issue, particularly among older citizens. The ‘digital divide’ has been identified as one of the contributing factors leaving many older citizens behind. While increasing digital literacy among seniors has been identified as one of the remedies, less attention has been paid to the role of news media on the wellbeing and connectedness of older people. Through the lens of the uses and gratifications theory, this article reports on the findings of a survey of 562 news consumers aged 50 years and above who live in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The analysis highlights the important role of news in reducing feelings of social isolation, particularly for those who spend more time alone and older people with cognitive impairment. Older participants who had difficulty concentrating and learning new tasks were also more dependent on news. We suggest this is due to the habitual, predictable and concise nature of news. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of news in the wellbeing of older people and point to the need for policymakers and those in the aged care sector to ensure access to news for older citizens to improve the quality of life.

As the population ages, the question of how to prevent isolation among older people and increase their well-being becomes a social issue. It has often been argued that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) usage can be a solution to these challenges, but empirical studies have not shown consistent results. Moreover, there are even fewer studies targeting older people in Japan, which is the most aging country in the world. Therefore, using the psychological comprehensive data of Japanese people aged 60 and over recorded in World Values Survey Wave 7, we conducted a study to clarify the relationship between the ICT usage, social capital, and well-being of older people to make a meaningful contribution to policymakers and the scientific community. As a result of the analysis, it was shown that ICT usage indirectly enhances well-being by increasing social capital. This indicates that for older people, ICT usage does not have a large effect on enhancing well-being, but becomes sufficiently large only through the improvement of social capital. The pros and cons of such modern communication means should be utilized as a reference when considering the development of future communication means and a human coach—a person who supports the use of communication means by older people. In other words, to think about the spread of communication means to community-dwelling older people in the future, it is always necessary to think about technology usage emphasizing the relationship between older people and society.