Intergenerational programmes are an established feature of volunteering with older people, including intergenerational interactions with residents in older people’s care homes. Positive outcomes for residents across a variety of intergenerational programmes, are reported (Di Bona et al. 2019; Handley et al. 2021; Somers 2018; United for All Ages 2020).
Research has suggested that most intergenerational programmes have positive results in the moment, but little is known regarding the longer-term sustainability of such activities, beyond the moment of the events themselves, and any lasting impact on the older and younger participants. An important question therefore is to determine how positive effects might be sustained and measured in older residents’ physical, cognitive, social and emotional health and what are the effects on younger individuals who participate with them. We invite applications for a PhD studentship funded by the University of East Anglia’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and associated with Norwich Institute of Healthy Ageing (NIHA) to conduct research on the topic, incorporating an inclusive approach. This is an exciting opportunity for a PhD candidate to explore how inclusive intergenerational programmes promoting health and well-being can address inequalities of access and take-up by residents and younger participants.
The successful candidate will work with a distinct, diverse supervisory team. Dr Kathleen Lane, the primary supervisor, is a Research Fellow with a strong background in the inclusion and voice of older people in care homes and the community (Lane 2016). Co-supervisor Dr Martyn Patel is a Consultant Geriatrician at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and Honorary Lecturer in Norwich Medical School, UEA, with experience of supervising students at Masters and PhD level. Kelly Lindsay, the non-academic co-supervisor, is Director of the Charity, Friend in Deed, which has extensive success promoting friendship and inclusion across the generations.