Supporting the mobilization of health assets among older community dwellers residing in senior-only households in Singapore: a qualitative study

Background Care activities provided by community health practitioners for older adults primarily focused on disease prevention and management. However, healthy longevity can go beyond disease prevention and management and promote greater well-being by tapping into the accrual of resources that older adults possess using the salutogenic approach. This study explored how health resources are used among older adults who are residing in senior-only households to promote and maintain health, with the intent of providing insights into how community health practitioners can support these older adults via asset-based strategies. Methods We adopted a descriptive qualitative study design using focus group discussions. Twenty-seven older adults who either lived alone or with their spouses were purposively sampled from an elderly populated residential estate in Singapore. Six focus group discussions, conducted from December 2016 to May 2017, were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results The themes that emerged were ‘tapping on internal self-care repository’, ‘maintaining and preserving informal social support’, and ‘enabling self by using environmental aids’, and an eco-map of aging assets was used to capture an overview of internal and external resources. With the repository of personal strengths, knowledge, and experiences, these older adults were generally resourceful in navigating around their resource-rich environments to cope with everyday life stressors and promote health. However, they were occasionally limited by individual factors that affected their comprehension, access, maintenance, and utilization of resources. Conclusion The eco-map of aging assets can be used as an assessment framework by community health practitioners to recognize, consider, and build a repertoire of resources among these older adults. It serves as a gentle reminder to adopt an ecological approach in considering and tapping into older adults’ wide-ranging personal, social, and environmental resources. Community health practitioners can support resource integration as resource facilitators via cognitive, behavioral, and motivational salutogenic pathways to overcome resource mobilization barriers faced by older adults. Such an approach helps older adults to find their internal capabilities and abilities to know who, where, what, and how to seek external resources to identify solutions, creating the intrinsic value to sustain their actions on resource utility.

Barriers and Enablers to Planning Initiatives for Active Living and Health

The response of local government (LG) to issues of rising rates of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) is an important one given their roles as place managers. This article explores the experiences of LG built environment and community health practitioners to identify barriers and enablers to the implementation of healthy planning and associated active living promotion efforts. The role of Australian LG in community health is presented, followed by findings from practitioner surveys and policy analysis undertaken, with subsequent discussion of the barriers and enablers. Six key enablers and barriers to successful project implementation were identified: (1) internal LG functioning, (2) the promotion of co-benefits, (3) partnerships, (4) the value of recognition and good news, (5) placing a mandate for action on LG and (6) funding and resourcing.