Engaging Older Adults in Participatory Research: A Journey of ACTIVE Involvement

More than a decade ago, European countries declared 2012 the European Year for Active Ageing to highlight the situation of older people who play an active role in society. Lithuania and Italy, like other European countries, have been developing a strategic policy on active ageing. The documents emphasise the need to ensure that positive experiences of a long life are accompanied by opportunities for quality of life and well-being when developing policies to support older people. The ageing of the population and the need for more inclusive and responsive services have contributed to the growing interest in participatory research (collaborative research) with older people. Fudge et al. (2007) define 'co-research ' as research doing research ‘with’ or ‘by’ older adults rather than ‘about’ or ‘for’ them. For Hayley and Tine (2022), collaborative research is a values-based approach to conducting research that supports the importance of diversity and a commitment to valuing older people's perspectives and lived experiences, while critically exploring the structural factors that lead to exclusion, oppression or loneliness in later life. Participatory research seeks to fully engage older people in the research process and has the potential to reverse established power imbalances and contribute to social action aimed at improving quality of life in later life (Buffel, 2018).

The aim of this presentation is to discuss older adults' experience in participatory research as a factor for active participation in community life. Research method: participatory research, interviews with co-research participants.

During the conference, the results of participatory research carried out in the framework of international and interdisciplinary cooperation between Lithuania and Italy will be presented.