Sept 22, 2000
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THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA Sept 22, 2000 |
 UVic research examines how different kinds of health care come together to help people cope with chronic illness or disabilityby Patty Pitts The deterioration of health in conjunction with aging often means relinquishing care to the hands of others. Or does it? Sociologist Dr. Margaret Penning believes that all kinds of care are involved in maintaining people’s quality of life, whether at home or in an institution, and she’s been awarded a five-year, $350,000 research award to study how different kinds of care come together to help people cope with chronic illness and disability. Penning is examining the links between self-care, informal care (provided by family and friends) and formal care, a different approach from most research, which tends to focus on one form or another. She asserts health systems can benefit from a better understanding of how they can complement the self and informal care that continues long after people become ill or enter care facilities. “People tend to equate independence with not receiving any kind of care, when care is also given in order to help people maintain independence,” says Penning, who conducts her research through the centre on aging. “There’s also been a concern that too much formal care will keep people from looking after themselves. Instead we need to see formal care as complementary and supplementary to self and informal care. The issue is really one of interdependence.” Penning’s funding is a health career investigator award administered by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the National Health Research and Development Program (NHRDP). The award recognizes Penning’s ongoing program of research into seniors’ health care, expanding its traditional definition to include aspects not normally recognized by health professions. “We’ve been doing this kind of research for a while but people are now beginning to recognize that health is more than the absence of disease and health care is more than bio-medicine and hospital care. It’s about how people cope, and maintain mental health and well-being.” Penning says the award enhances teaching as much as research since it allows her to involve post-doctoral and graduate students. Her work includes several other projects as well, including a three-year longitudinal study on the impact regionalization has on the utilization of health services and health outcomes. This project involves the Capital Health Region as well as the Okanagan-Similkameen and the Upper Island/Central Coast health regions. Penning is also involved in the longest longitudinal study on aging in Canada, involving 20 years of data, examining how self and informal care patterns change over time. Both projects are being conducted in partnership with researchers at the University of Manitoba. “Older people don’t abandon self and informal care when they become ill, receive home care or enter a facility — all forms of care increase. Even most of those with the highest level of disability engage in some sort of self-care. Re-arranging furniture, adapting their mobility, wearing different clothing — it’s all a form of self-care. The same is true of support given by family members and friends. All this must be taken into account when networks of care are discussed.” |