[3 of 4] O4O – Older people for older people. Can the people do it themselves? [Artur Steinerowski]
The future for rural health services is the topic for the first in the new series of free public lectures at UHI, the prospective University of the Highlands and Islands. Professor Jane Farmer, UHI co-director of the Inverness-based Centre for Rural Health, is joined at the lectern next week by two of her researchers, Amy Nimegeer and Artur Steinerowski. The centre has carried out two years of concentrated research with rural communities in the region about their health services. Amy has been working on a project looking at ways to involve communities in planning services, while Artur is looking at the role of social enterprises in community sustainability and working on the centre’s O4O (Older for Older) scheme. In collaboration with local people, the O4O team is devising initiatives to enable elderly people to live happily and healthily in remote and rural areas. Professor Farmer said: "Our research has shown what rural communities want from health services and how that might be provided. We also speak about the changes required from managers, professions and community members themselves - and how everyone may have to think and act in much more radical ways to have services provided in the future."
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[3 of 4] O4O – Older people for older people. Can the people do it themselves? [Artur Steinerowski]
- 1. O4O – Older people for older people. Can the people do it themselves? Artur Steinerowski O4O team member Centre for Rural Health
- 2. Challenges relating to service provision in remote and rural areas What is O4O? The O4O project - Older People for Older People Demographic changes and apocalyptic scenarios Government policies about service provision e.g. social enterprise Testing these policies through O4O
- 4. Perception of older people
- 5. Changing perception of older people - To promote older people as a positive force Aims of O4O - To involve older people in producing O4O organisations and services - To help maintain people living in their own communities for as long as possible
- 6. O4O theory Engagement of older people in O4O Older people remain active for longer Trust and social networks develop Increased community capacity Positive impact on physical and mental health O4O organisations deliver services for other older people Reduced dependence on the State as a provider
- 8. T4T: Transport for Tongue Provides Transport services including: - Informal connecting of people to share lifts - Formal volunteering for the car scheme - Demand responsive service / minibus hire (planned) O4O examples
- 9. Ardersier - Oral history DVD - Development of community buildings O4O examples
- 10. Taste of the reality? Why should we support O4Os? (community perspective) - The State should provide services - Capacity issue - Equality issues (rural vs. urban) Why should we support O4Os? (service providers perspective) - How much money can we save? - What are the tangible outcomes? - Social enterprise is a good idea BUT …
Editor's Notes
- So, T4T helps local communities to provide transport services. There are different aspects of the project but all of them address transport issues. People are able to travel from one place to another e.g. they can go to a shop, to a church, they can go and visit their friends and relatives more easily than in the past. Also, transport can be provided to those who need to see their health providers. Thus, in one way the transport scheme helps people to stay independent for longer as with a minimum support they are able to look after themselves. On the other hand, it improves physical and mental health as people are more active and are not isolated in their rural communities. Consequently, there is a health aspect attached to T4T. For service providers T4T helps to provide transport services, but there is also less tangible outcome of improved health of those who participate in T4T.
- Ardersier is a very interesting place. There was a huge amount of hesitation to participate in the project and the community did not seem to be integrated. The community started O4O with an oral history project – a group of older people bought a video camera and video editing equipment (with support from the local Councillors Ward Discretionary Budget) and got advice about filming and interviewing. They interview older people in the village about their early memories and what life was like in the village years ago. They have recorded over 20 interviews so far. Each person who has been interviewed will get a DVD of their interview. It is hoped to edit all the footage to produce themed DVDs that can be used for school projects. And a summary of the project is available on You Tube – you can see it on the O4O website. The project helped with building capacity of this particular community. People involved in o4o learnt new skills but what is more important – they became more confident and the sense of place was developed . This confidence building although not tangible has important impact on the community which decided to start a new project and people in the community continue working together. O4O is linking with other initiatives in the community around developing community capacity; for example, with an initiative around the development of the village hall. So, again, apart for a tangible outcome of the project (DVD) there is something more that can’t be easily measure. These relate to increased confidence and enhanced capacity of the community that is likely to remain active for longer integrating local people (and this, obviously has health impacts).