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“We are good neighbours, but we are not carers!”: Lived experiences of conflicting (in)dependence needs in retirement villages across the United Kingdom and Australia

Carr, S; Fang, C; (2021) “We are good neighbours, but we are not carers!”: Lived experiences of conflicting (in)dependence needs in retirement villages across the United Kingdom and Australia. The Gerontologist 10.1093/geront/gnab164. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

Background and Objectives This study sought to qualitatively explore the lived experiences of 80 older people living in retirement villages across the UK and Australia. We focused on residents’ narratives around the themes of independence/dependence. Research Design and Methods Qualitative semi-structured interviews permitted in-depth exploration of how older people understood and experienced issues related to independence/dependence in the context of retirement living. Results Core themes identified strikingly different and often competing needs and narratives around independence/dependence. Of note was the fact that narratives and needs around independence/dependence frequently collided and conflicted, creating a sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’ in the retirement community. The primary source of such conflict was reflected by the fact that residents seeking a ‘prolonged midlife’ often felt that frailer and more dependent residents were a burden on them and were not suited to an ‘independent living community.’ Discussion and Implications Our findings are discussed in relation to the challenges such competing narratives create for retirement villages as living environments for a group of people that are far from homogenous.

Type: Article
Title: “We are good neighbours, but we are not carers!”: Lived experiences of conflicting (in)dependence needs in retirement villages across the United Kingdom and Australia
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1093/geront/gnab164
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnab164
Language: English
Additional information: This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Qualitative, Aging, Retirement living, Othering, Ageism
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10137743
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