• Summary: A recent summary of research findings concluded that
social policy and practice should use older people's lives as the starting point to
plan and evaluate services (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2004). Based on the findings
of a small-scale qualitative study and related research, this article explores the
strategies and ways of coping used by older people to manage changes and
difficulties that accompany ageing.
• Findings: It is suggested that older people's strategies and
ways of coping can be understood as efforts to sustain a sense of self in later life
and a model of some key processes involved is presented. The empirical findings of
the study are related to theoretical models of ageing and identity management.
Attention is directed to the interaction between structural resources and
constraints, dominant cultural norms and values, and older people's individual
capacities for reflexivity and interpretation.
• Applications : It is argued that this understanding has
significant implications for the planning and delivery of social work and social
care services that aim to promote the well-being of older people. In particular,
practitioners need to understand the meaning and significance that difficulties and
different approaches to managing them have for individuals. Interventions should be
sensitive to, and seek to support, older people's cognitive ways of coping, as well
as their practical strategies.
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