Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T23:58:57.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Health is their heart, their legs, their back’: understanding ageing well in ethnically diverse older men in rural Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2014

HARRIET RADERMACHER  and
SUSAN FELDMAN
HARRIET RADERMACHER*
Affiliation:
Healthy Ageing Research Unit, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
SUSAN FELDMAN
Affiliation:
Healthy Ageing Research Unit, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
*
Address for correspondence: Harriet Radermacher, Primary Care Research Unit, Monash University, 1/270 Ferntree Gully Road, Notting Hill, Victoria 3168, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Older men from ethnic minority communities living in a regional town in Australia were identified by a government-funded peak advocacy body as failing to access local health and support services and, more broadly, being at risk of not ageing well. A qualitative study was undertaken to explore the health and wellbeing of ethnic minority men growing older in a rural community, and to identify the barriers they faced in accessing appropriate services from a range of different perspectives. Individual interviews were conducted with key informants (service providers and community leaders), followed by focus groups with older men from four ethnic minority communities. The men in this study showed signs that they were at risk of poor mental and physical health, and experienced significant barriers to accessing health and support services. Furthermore, environmental, technological, social and economic changes have brought challenges for the older men as they age. Despite these challenges, this study demonstrated how work, family and ethnic identity was integral to the lives of these older men, and was, in many ways, a resource. Key informants' perspectives mostly confirmed the experiences of the older men in this study. The discrepancies in their views about the extent of health-promoting behaviour indicate some key areas for future health intervention, services and research.

Keywords

older menruralethnicitymigrationhealthservices
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 35 , Issue 5 , May 2015 , pp. 1011 - 1031
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addis, M. and Mahalik, J. 2003. Men, masculinity, and the contexts of help seeking. American Psychologist, 58, 1, 5–14.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012. Reflecting a Nation: Stories from the 2011 Census, 2012–2013. Catalogue number 2071.0, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Government 2013. The Changing Face of Modern Australia – 1950s to 1970s. Available online at http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/changing-face-of-modern-australia-1950s-to-1970s [Accessed 31 October 2014].Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2007. Older Australia at a Glance. Fourth edition, catalogue number AGE 52, AIHW, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2010. A Snapshot of Men's Health in Regional and Remote Australia. AIHW, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2013. Australia's Welfare 2013. Australia's Welfare 11, catalogue number AUS174, AIHW, Canberra.Google Scholar
Bambling, M., Kavanagh, D., Lewis, G., King, R., King, D., Sturk, H., Turpin, M., Gallois, C. and Bartlett, H. 2007. Challenges faced by general practitioners and allied mental health services in providing mental health services in rural Queensland. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 15, 2, 126–30.Google Scholar
Braun, V. and Clark, V. 2006. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 2, 77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Constant, A., Gataullina, L. and Zimmermann, K. F. 2006. Gender, ethnic identity and work. Discussion Paper 2420, IZA, Bonn, Germany.Google Scholar
Council on the Ageing 2008. A Strategic Policy Framework for Older Men's Health. Council on the Ageing, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Department of Health and Ageing (DOHA) 2008. Developing a Men's Health Policy for Australia. Australian Government, Canberra.Google Scholar
Feldman, S., Petersen, A. and Radermacher, H. 2012. The vicissitudes of ‘healthy ageing’: the experiences of older migrant men in a rural Australian community. In Kampf, A., Marshall, B. and Petersen, A. (eds), Aging Men: Masculinities and Modern Medicine. Routledge, London, 86–104.Google Scholar
Fuller, J., Edwards, J., Proeter, N. and Moss, J. 2000. How definition of mental health problems can influence help seeking in rural and remote communities. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 8, 3, 148–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Howe, A. L. 2006. Cultural Diversity, Ageing and HACC: Trends in Victoria in the Next 15 Years. Rural and Regional Health and Aged Care Services Division, Victorian Government Department of Human Services, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Ip, D., Lui, C. and Chui, W. 2007. Veiled entrapment: a study of social isolation of older Chinese migrants in Brisbane, Queensland. Ageing & Society, 27, 5, 719–38.Google Scholar
Jensen, H., Munk, K. and Madsen, S. 2010. Gendering late-life depression? The coping process in a group of elderly men. Nordic Psychology, 62, 2, 56–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiropoulos, L. A., Blashki, G. and Klimidis, S. 2005. Managing mental illness in patients from CALD backgrounds. Australian Family Physician, 34, 4, 259–64.Google Scholar
Koleth, E. 2010. Multiculturalism: a review of Australian policy statements and recent debates in Australia and overseas. Research Paper 6, 2010–11, Parliamentary Library, Commonwealth of Australia. Available online at http://apo.org.au/node/22862 [Accessed 31 October 2014].Google Scholar
Kraaij, V., Arensman, E. and Spinhoven, P. 2002. Negative life events and depression in elderly persons: a meta-analysis. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 57B, 1, 87–94.Google Scholar
LaVeist, T. A. 2000. On the study of race, racism, and health: a shift from description to explanation. International Journal of Health Services, 30, 1, 217–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pugh, R., Scharf, T., Williams, C. and Roberts, R. 2007. Obstacles to using and providing rural social care. Research Briefing 22, Social Care Institute for Excellence, London.Google Scholar
Radermacher, H., Feldman, S. and Browning, C. 2009. Mainstream versus ethno-specific community aged care services: it's not an ‘either or’. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 28, 2, 58–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ricciardelli, L. A., Mellor, D. and McCabe, M. P. 2012. The quiet crisis: the challenges of men's health in Australia. InPsych, 34, 4. Available online at http://www.psychology.org.au/inpsych/2012/august/ricciardelli/ [Accessed 31 October 2014].Google Scholar
Ricciardelli, L. A., Mellor, D., McCabe, M. P., Mussap, A. and Kolar, C. 2013. Culture and health: an Australian perspective. In Caltabiano, M. L. and Ricciardelli, L. A. (eds), Applied Topics in Health Psychology. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 84–100.Google Scholar
Rienzo, C. and Vargas-Silva, C. 2012. Migrants in the UK: An Overview. Migration Observatory Briefing, COMPAS, University of Oxford, Oxford.Google Scholar
State Government of Victoria 2013. Population Diversity in Victoria: 2011 Census Local Government Areas. State Government of Victoria, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Statistics Bureau of Japan 2011. Population Count Based on the 2010 Census Released. Available online at www.stat.go.jp/english/ [Accessed 6 September 2012].Google Scholar
Sweeney, P. and Kisely, S. 2003. Barriers to managing mental health in Western Australia. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 11, 4, 205–10.Google Scholar
US Census Bureau 2012. The Foreign-born Population in the United States: 2010. Available online at http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/acs-19.pdf [Accessed 6 September 2012].Google Scholar