OA- INVOLVE is an AGE-WELL project with the mandate to document best practices of older adult involvement in aging and technology research, and to support the implementation of best practices across the AGE-WELL network. When we started the OA-INVOLVE project, there was very little information about how AGE-WELL network members involve older people in their new development projects. Yet, one of the key principles of AGE-WELL is that older people's involvement be central to all projects. This is so that the problem of technology push doesn't create fantastic technologies that nobody wants or can use. BUT, it became pretty clear early on in the network formation that there were some very different ways that the notion of 'involvement' was conceptualized and operationalized. For some researchers, involvement meant collecting information about user needs or testing technologies with older people as participants to see how well they worked. For others, involvement was about creating an advisory group to talk about the principles of the research. Still others felt that involvement meant older people as decision makers within the project, or working alongside researchers as partners in the project (co-producers).
To find out how these different forms of involvement featured in AGE-WELL projects, we (the OA-INVOLVE team) conducted a survey of projects, support and governance structures. We are now able and excited to share with you some of the findings. Of the 39 projects, crosscutting themes, and governance structures involved in the survey (100% response!!), 36 either engaged or planned to engage older people. However, the majority of these were in the most basic participant category with relatively few projects treating older people as advisors and even less as co-producers. Seven projects indicated they were or would involve older people in all three roles.
Maybe more impressive is the number of older people involved in AGE-WELL projects at the time of the survey (April-August 2016): 2086 in total. Of these, 82% were as participants, 11% as advisors and only 7% as co-producers. At the time of the survey, only 4 projects were following the co-producer model and a further 7 projects were planning to do this in the future. We have now produced a report of the survey results, which can be accessed through 'OUR RESEARCH'.
To measure the growth of older people's involvement in AGE-WELL, we are now launching the next survey. Hopefully, we will see not just a growth in the numbers of older people involved, but also see an expansion of older people involved across the life of the projects and in more active and decision making roles. Once we have this information, we can then evaluate how the more active involvement of older people impacts on successful commercialized AGE-WELL products, be they technologies, services or policies.
Please help us document the evolution of older adult involvement in the AGE-WELL network. Watch this space for the results of the next survey!
Authors: Judith Sixsmith and Susan Kirkland, Co-Leads OA-INVOLVE
To find out how these different forms of involvement featured in AGE-WELL projects, we (the OA-INVOLVE team) conducted a survey of projects, support and governance structures. We are now able and excited to share with you some of the findings. Of the 39 projects, crosscutting themes, and governance structures involved in the survey (100% response!!), 36 either engaged or planned to engage older people. However, the majority of these were in the most basic participant category with relatively few projects treating older people as advisors and even less as co-producers. Seven projects indicated they were or would involve older people in all three roles.
Maybe more impressive is the number of older people involved in AGE-WELL projects at the time of the survey (April-August 2016): 2086 in total. Of these, 82% were as participants, 11% as advisors and only 7% as co-producers. At the time of the survey, only 4 projects were following the co-producer model and a further 7 projects were planning to do this in the future. We have now produced a report of the survey results, which can be accessed through 'OUR RESEARCH'.
To measure the growth of older people's involvement in AGE-WELL, we are now launching the next survey. Hopefully, we will see not just a growth in the numbers of older people involved, but also see an expansion of older people involved across the life of the projects and in more active and decision making roles. Once we have this information, we can then evaluate how the more active involvement of older people impacts on successful commercialized AGE-WELL products, be they technologies, services or policies.
Please help us document the evolution of older adult involvement in the AGE-WELL network. Watch this space for the results of the next survey!
Authors: Judith Sixsmith and Susan Kirkland, Co-Leads OA-INVOLVE
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