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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Exploring the importance of discretionary mobility in later life | | Author(s) | Charles Musselwhite |
| Journal title | Working with Older People, vol 21, no 1, 2017 |
| Publisher | Emerald, 2017 |
| Pages | pp 49-58 |
| Source | www.emeraldinsight.com/loi/wwop |
| Keywords | Mobility ; Quality of life ; Well being ; Transport services ; Social interaction ; Qualitative Studies. |
| Annotation | Travel and mobility for older people has typically focused on the practical benefits to the individual, for example, in meeting utilitarian needs of shopping, appointments and staying connected to family and friends. However, previous research has hinted that travel for its own sake, to get out and about and feel and experience mobility, may be just as important for older people and is especially missed when individuals give-up driving. This paper examines travel for its own sake, usually referred to as discretionary travel. 20 older people were interviewed in each of three different contexts: drivers, community transport users, and non-drivers who receive lifts from family and friends. Older people not only enjoy discretionary travel, but also feel it is beneficial to their health and well-being. The car and especially driving, is seen as the best way to fulfil discretionary travel. Community transport users do fulfil discretionary travel needs, but these are over-formalised and lack spontaneity, affecting feelings of control and identity. Receiving lifts from family and friends can often result in older people feeling a burden to the providers of the lifts, especially when travel is viewed as discretionary. More needs to be done to ensure discretionary travel needs are met for those without cars, highlighting the importance of such travel to community transport providers and helping reduce the feeling of being a burden to family and friends. Policy, practice and research has tended to focus on transport as a means to an end. However, older people themselves value mobility just as much for its own sake, for example to view nature. Such discretionary reasons for mobility are actually very important for older people's health and well-being, and need more attention. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-170310214 A |
| Classmark | C4: F:59: D:F:5HH: O: TMA: 3DP |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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