Everybody complains about the way their neighbourhoods work, or don’t. But doing anything about it is hard, unless they use Stanford U researcher Abby King’s Our Voice framework, a methodology for ordinary people to collect and analyse data from their daily lives and use the findings to advocate for their own needs in the community.
University of Queensland researcher Anthony Tuckett and international colleagues suggest old people can use the methodology to find their voice and speak up for what they need to cope. “The great opportunity for public health programmes in the first half of the 21st century is to keep old people healthy longer, delaying or avoiding disability or dependence. The longer people remain mobile and care for themselves (i.e. age in place) the lower are the costs to long-term care to families and society,” Tuckett and team write in a new journal article.