LC 00810

Overview

HAIRE’s toolkit was designed to help project partners understand how the health and wellbeing of older adults is influenced by their neighbourhood, life experiences and the connections they have established with other individuals and/or local organisations. The toolkit consists of three tools - Neighbourhood Analysis, Guided Conversation and Social Network Analysis. 

HAIRE’s tools can be used individually or together. In HAIRE, they were used together in the following way:

Neighbourhood Analysis: The collation of important resources in the local area. The collated resources could then be used to signpost spaces, activities and organisations for older adults. Some of our partners created a directory, see example: Directory of Local Groups in Feock (UK)

Guided Conversation: One-to-one conversations with older adults to understand how their life experiences, neighbourhood and relationships (past and present) influence their wellbeing. Participants were encouraged to think about what they could do to address any issues and speak about the support that they need and would value. To finish, volunteers conducting the conversations and the older adults taking part in them agreed on supportive actions.

Social Network Analysis: A six-question survey helped participants to list key connections to other people, activities and organisations. The questions in the survey helped to summarise the strength of a participant’s connections, e.g. how close they felt to particular people. The information sources that they used were also collected. Individual responses were collated to provide an overview of the connections that existed across all participants in a pilot site.