Should I Stay or Go: Rural Ageing, a Time for Reflection
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Methods
2.1. Setting
2.2. Recruitment
3. Results
3.1. Social Networks
If anything happens to one or both of us the children would have to get on a plane to come up and see what are those two up to now, you know, what have they done this time. Whereas if we’re in City A or City B they’ve only got to hop in a car.(Danny, 70, Milltown, married, Eddie’s friend)
She was there for me when my husband died, I was there for her when hers died.(Tessa, 65, Milltown, Single, Sophie’s friend)
I’m giving back a little but only when they ask for it.
I haven’t got family here, I haven’t got too many friends and would rather organise ad hoc paid care than be pushed by bureaucrats (Mark discussing whether he would use government home care services).(Mark, 75, Milltown, Partnered, Primary)
Reg lives at home with his wife and his four children all live close by with their children. The family is very close and supportive of one another and mainly socialise together and states “he is allergic to clubs” and likes to do his own thing.
Reg can be a bit anti-social—I don’t want to go there—but if we go to a party he is the last one to leave.(Marnie, 57, Sugartown, Reg’s wife)
Your wife’s doing something and you just get drawn into it.(Andy, 76, Milltown, widowed, Primary)
3.2. Stay or Go
…“we’ll have to think about what the next stage is, unless we die first, which happens to all of us isn’t it. You’ve got to plan unless you die first.”(Danny, 70, Milltown, Eddie’s Friend)
…if we get around to listing it, it is a bit of a mess it has overgrown and is going to have to be sold overgrown,—I always said I was worried we would leave it too late now we left it too late, not capable of doing it used to be able to.
15 acres compared to this, there is no comparison this is like going to hell without dying (Reg on now living in the city).(Reg, 72, Sugartown, Married, Primary)
…rural hospital which they do their best they can but don’t have the facilities of city hospital us kids couldn’t lend a hand to look after Dad if he was sick if Mum was busy working.(Susie, 31, Sugartown, married—Reg’s daughter)
I was going through a bit of a low health period at the time and they decided I wasn’t fit to live on my own and anyway, [supportive friend] had offered this house to me before, so I moved in to town.(Beth, 94, Cattletown, widowed, primary)
Our son and his family lives in regional city that pull us to there but there are lots of problems getting there, two of which are house sales in small towns isn’t too active and then the price that you get for your house compared to the price that you have to pay for some accommodation in regional city.(Cate, 75, Sugartown, married, Libby’s friend)
We’ve given it a sort of two year timeframe to sell and we would probably try and buy something or build in walking distance of town.(Clare, 74, Milltown, married, primary)
3.3. Home Upkeep
…so we got this block of land which has got a lot of forest around it and we’re just sort of coasting along really until we get probably close to 80 when we physically won’t be able to handle this place anymore and we’ll have to think about what the next stage is.(Danny, 70, Milltown, married, Eddie’s friend)
3.4. Families
My son thinks I should go to his town, my daughter thinks I should go to her town. While I’m as fit as I am I’ll stay here but if I deteriorate, if I needed full time care, I would definitely go to his town or her town.(Beth, 94, Cattletown, widowed, primary)
It would be easier for my daughter when I needed her to do things for me and that. She’s working so I can’t drag her away from her job.(Jess, 74, Milltown, Mark’s partner)
My family gives me great support, yes, but I wouldn’t live with them. We’ve got an aged care centre here, I would go there if I couldn’t look after myself.(Caitlin, 82, Cattletown, widowed, primary)
…when he has been really sick he has been ok with people helping him but he is pretty quick to get back on his feet he is very proud he doesn’t want someone to do something he can do himself but when he can’t do something he will let someone help him.(Susie, 31, SugarTown, Reg’s daughter)
3.5. Home Care Services
I’d like to stay in my own home and I know that we can get support like that.(Eddie, 74, Milltown, widowed, discussing at-home services)
That lady that I just spoke to on the phone, she just can’t get over how wonderful HACC is here, how accommodating they are.(Carrie, 71, Cattletown, widowed, primary)
If I had to have someone come in to do a bit of housework or something like that I’d accept it, yeah. Because I know as I say with Mum, they were just so good and they become part of the family. (Jenny on her previous interaction with at-home services, when they looked after her mother).(Jenny, 72, Milltown, Married, Eddie’s friend)
I think they’re great for people who want to downsize and all that sort of stuff, but for me, only if it was forced.(Debbie, 85, Sugartown, widowed, primary)
My sister and I talk about getting old and we hope we don’t have to go to the old age home. Like maybe have a quick big heart attack and gone.(Jess, 74, Milltown, Mark’s partner)
…like Mum, she never wanted to be—and her pain, she was so sick in the end that they wanted to put her into care and thank goodness, thank the Lord she passed away.(Jenny talking about her mother’s illness, Milltown, 72, married, Eddie’s friend)
My husband you know he wants to stay here so…uh if I had a choice or the doctor said to me you would be better off in a home well inside I would be laughing when do we go?
So I think that the government want you to stay in your home for as long as possible and there is nowhere to go, there is a waiting list, virtually someone has got to die.(Libby, 77, Sugartown, married, primary)
So I don’t think it’s in the plan of things that my family will be—they’re there but they’re certainly not going to be looking after me.(Carrie, 71, Cattletown, widowed, primary)
They’re solid so he’d probably live there if anything happened to me but I wouldn’t, I’d live here.(Clare, 74, Milltown, married, primary)
I mean you can lose your licence and you can’t go anywhere and he said he doesn’t want to be dependent on other people. It’s not what we want to do, it’s just being sensible.(Clare, 74, Milltown, married primary)
I’d just like a bus, I’d just like to be able to get out of this place without relying on somebody else … to say I’ll get the bus.(Sophie, 73, Milltown, married, primary)
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Town | Population | Geography | Remoteness Area | MMM |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sugar Town | 4767 | Coastal | RA 2-3 | Category 5 |
Cattle Town | 1152 | Outback | RA 5 | Category 7 |
Mill Town | 1442 | Rain Forest | RA 2-3 | Category 5 |
Integrated Social Networks | Characteristics | Embedded Cases |
---|---|---|
Locally Integrated | Typically large social networks characterized by close connections with family, friends, neighbors and the community. | Debbie, Caitlin, Sophie |
Wider Community Focused | Lack of local family members but contact with friends and neighbors. Have extensive contact with relatives who live some distance away (adult children, siblings) | Carrie, Clare, Beth, Eddie, Libby |
Restricted Social Networks | ||
Private Restricted | No local family, few friends and few links to community (may be married). | Mark |
Family Dependent | Networks contain mostly family with only a few friends and neighbors. | Reg, Andy |
Local self-contained | Solitary, little contact with family or community, may receive some help from neighbors. |
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Anderson, E.M.; Larkins, S.; Beaney, S.; Ray, R.A. Should I Stay or Go: Rural Ageing, a Time for Reflection. Geriatrics 2018, 3, 49. https://doi.org/10.3390/geriatrics3030049
Anderson EM, Larkins S, Beaney S, Ray RA. Should I Stay or Go: Rural Ageing, a Time for Reflection. Geriatrics. 2018; 3(3):49. https://doi.org/10.3390/geriatrics3030049
Chicago/Turabian StyleAnderson, Emily M., Sarah Larkins, Sarah Beaney, and Robin A. Ray. 2018. "Should I Stay or Go: Rural Ageing, a Time for Reflection" Geriatrics 3, no. 3: 49. https://doi.org/10.3390/geriatrics3030049