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In 2011, seven thousand American \"baby boomers\" (those born between 1946 and 1964) turned sixty-five daily. As this largest U.S. generation ages, cities, municipalities, and governments at every level must grapple with the allocation of resources and funding for maintaining the quality of life, health, and standard of living for an aging population. InThe New Neighborhood Senior Center, Joyce Weil uses in-depth ethnographic methods to examine a working-class senior center in Queens, New York. She explores the ways in which social structure directly affects the lives of older Americans and traces the role of political, social, and economic institutions and neighborhood processes in the decision to close such centers throughout the city of New York. Many policy makers and gerontologists advocate a concept of \"aging in place,\" whereby the communities in which these older residents live provide access to resources that foster and maintain their independence. But all \"aging in place\" is not equal and the success of such efforts depends heavily upon the social class and availability of resources in any given community. Senior centers, expanded in part by funding from federal programs in the 1970s, were designed as focal points in the provision of community-based services. However, for the first wave of \"boomers,\" the role of these centers has come to be questioned. Declining government support has led to the closings of many centers, even as the remaining centers are beginning to \"rebrand\" to attract the boomer generation. However,The New Neighborhood Senior Centerdemonstrates the need to balance what the boomers' want from centers with the needs of frailer or more vulnerable elders who rely on the services of senior centers on a daily basis. Weil challenges readers to consider what changes in social policies are needed to support or supplement senior centers and the functions they serve.

Purpose Although thematic analysis is a commonly used technique, this paper aims to explore the potential advantages (and drawbacks) of both thematic analysis and a dialogic approach to qualitative data analysis. Design/methodology/approach Initially, the epistemology and application of each design, thematic analysis and dialogic analysis are compared. Then, examples of coding segments of narrative data from 85 open-ended interviews with older adults exploring the meaning of place and place-attachment are presented through both thematic and dialogic analyses. Findings The conclusion offers suggestions about how dialogic analysis can add additional context and more participant inclusion and agency to thematic analysis. Originality/value The blending of these two qualitative analysis approaches offers better emphasis on fully presenting older individuals’ narratives.

Increasing numbers of older adults are residing in rural areas of the USA. Many of these individuals experience greater rates of chronic diseases and lower income levels compared to their urban-residing counterparts. Aging in rural environments creates greater challenges in the provision of funding, staff and resources to meet the needs of these older adults, and contributes to immense health disparities and health inequities. Urban and rural older adult residents alike need healthcare, gerontological and public health resources to promote successful aging in place. Due to the nature of rural environments, many of these resources often exist great distances from these residents, which creates access challenges. There are also limitations in locally available facilities and trained practitioners, resulting in resource shortages for addressing chronic health conditions. The creation and use of interdisciplinary partnerships provides this much-needed support while addressing ever-increasing funding and staffing limitations. This article provides an innovative conceptual interdisciplinary partnership model that combines nursing, public health and gerontology to address the health and social challenges that rural-residing older adults face. Although well-trained practitioners who work within their discipline are an important contributor to assist with the needs of rural-residing older adults, this silo approach is expensive, inefficient, and clearly cannot support all of the needs for older adults in this type of environment. There is a need to blend the complementary skills provided by each of the presented disciplines so that the focus of the interdisciplinary partnership is on person-centered care addressing the health disparities and health inequities experienced by these older adults. To illustrate the integration of nursing, public health and gerontology disciplines, these disciplines are initially combined and presented as dyads, and are then incorporated into the full conceptual model. The dyads are public health and gerontology, public health and nursing, and gerontology and nursing. Steps are provided for the development of this (or any) interdisciplinary partnership. An example of the model's use through clinical and non-clinical disciplines and a community engagement framework is also described. Interdisciplinary approaches focused on person-centered care provide more well-rounded health and social support for rural older adults than any one discipline in isolation. Allocation of shared resources, roles, responsibilities and expenses allows practitioners engaged in interdisciplinary teams to provide superior economic and capacity efficiency. This efficiency is crucial at a time when many entities experience limitations in sustainable resources. Thus, practitioners and community agencies collaborating through interdisciplinary partnerships are better able to address the complex issues experienced by rural-residing community members.

Abstract Photovoice is built upon the principle of empowerment. With the increased use of Smartphones, photovoice provides a more readily available qualitative option for co-research with older adults. This presentation provides examples from the current study illustrating the process of creating a project that uses photovoice to see how older adults construct the meaning of home and place. While the benefits of this design are many, some issues do arise during implementation, such as: creating study protocols to address Institutional Review Board (IRB) concerns; working with organizations to ensure that the design is truly co-created; and navigating and conducting photovoice in a completely virtual arena. Examples will also be drawn from technical training received as part of LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston and Collective Insight's Aging Centered Outcomes Research Learning Collaborative, as well as the Healthier Black Elders Center, which is affiliated with the University of Michigan and Wayne State University.

Co-designed photovoice is a way for older adults to express what a place means to them from their own point of view using images and narrative. The goal of this study is to understand the concept of “home” using photovoice through the lens of older adults living in Baltimore, Maryland. As part of this co-designed, IRB-approved study, 14 older adults were interviewed twice via Zoom, a video calling platform, about the meaning of home and their community or neighborhood. Participants shared and explained the meaning of 10 photographs regarding what home meant to them. In the second Zoom interview, participants explained the meaning behind each photo and why they selected them. After analyzing the transcripts and photos of each participant, some common themes were found highlighting the meaning of home for the participants. Themes were about symbolism and meaning of objects around their home, neighborhood accessibility and walkability, daily routines and practices, and how “home” had changed during the pandemic. The ways in which virtual co-designed photovoice were based on older adults’ reframing and designing the study will be discussed.

Abstract Understanding person-environment fit, or how well older adults’ environment suits their needs, is complex. While all methodological approaches to gain deeper knowledge about fit have great value, the combination of methodologies provides a layered account of the experience of aging in a place, including the people older adults find important. This research found a clear benefit of combining results of 2 focus groups, 85 in-depth qualitative interviews, and 100 web-based surveys to assess how older adults discuss who and what is meaningful to them. Results show the combined benefit of using a qualitative and mixed-method process during the psychometric testing of the Person-Place Fit Measure for Older Adults. Qualitative focus groups and interviews offered additional domains and exact language older adults used to discuss place. Early qualitative phases improved later stages of this research, namely, online testing, reduction of survey items, and psychometric testing of the final quantitative instrument.

Abstract Person-environment fit models are at the core of gerontological theory and practice. The Person-Place Fit Measure for Older Adults (PPFM-OA) was developed to capture key place domains arising from the expansion of aging in place and age-friendly concepts across the continuum of care, increasingly diverse older populations, and the changing meaning of place. The goal of this study was to create a validated measure to assess “fit”. Data from in-depth interviews, focus groups, review of literature and existing comparable measures, and cognitive interviewing created an initial instrument of 90 items. Through the use of a Delphi panel of experts, 60 items were selected and tested in the final measure on Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Results from a sample of persons 60 and older are discussed. Findings from psychometric testing of the PPFM-OA measure are reported. These findings show the final, further-reduced-item version of the Person-Place Fit Measure for Older Adults has good internal consistency and validity. Both this measure and its development process can advance understanding and measurement of place models.