Natural leisure spaces in long-term care homes: challenging assumptions about successful aging through meaningful living. Issue 1 (1st January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Whyte, Colleen; Fortune, Darla
• Is Part Of: Annals of leisure research. Volume 20:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 7
• Page End: 22
• Publication Date: 2017-01-01
• Subjects: Long-term care -- successful aging -- leisure -- social spaces -- relationships; Leisure -- Periodicals; Recreation -- Periodicals; Sports -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Tourism -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 306.481205
• DOI: 10.1080/11745398.2016.1175954
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1174-5398

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In promoting high physical activity and productive engagement as the motto of successful aging, society has cast individuals living in long-term care (LTC) homes as aging unsuccessfully [Holstein, M. B., and M. Minkler. 2003. "Self, Society and the 'New Gerontology'." The Gerontologist 43: 787–796]. The purpose of this paper is to explore ways natural leisure spaces within an LTC home can challenge deficit-based assumptions of decline and dependence in later life. Interviews were conducted with 9 residents, 8 family members and 11 staff recruited from one mid-sized LTC home in Ontario, Canada. The study used a hermeneutic phenomenological method, as described by van Manen [1997. Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy . London, ON: The Althouse Press]. Lived experiences of participants throughout the interviews revealed how natural leisure spaces sparked continued expressions of individuality, opportunities to nurture relationships and maintain family social roles.