MF02: Well, it depends what's on our agenda for the week. In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adopted promoting connectedness as its strategic direction for preventing suicidal behavior.1 The CDC defines connectedness as “the degree to which a person or group is socially close, interrelated, or shares resources with other persons or groups.”1. No intimate friends? Data were analysed using thematic and narrative analyses. Future research could utilise non-representational theories of health that combine material, sensory and affective processes with conscious thought and agency in order to explore further how social connectedness is made, negotiated and narrated in everyday life (Andrews, Reference Andrews2018). In line with Victor and Bowling (Reference Victor and Bowling2012), we see that support and/or treatment of people's chronic health problems would help to improve older people's opportunities for socially meaningful lives. 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If there are close friends, I can go out with them and have a cup of tea, do shopping, and chat (laughter), how happy that would be. European participants also seemingly emphasised their hobbies and awareness of current affairs to illustrate that they were interesting people worthy of company. The process used in this study was inclusive of younger adults (age 40–65) as well as older adults (65+) in order to further understand how they envision a community that could support their own aging in place. She does her own thing, I do my own thing, but we do have a cup of tea. The small numbers of men willing to participate in the Māori, Pacific and Asian groups meant we are unable to provide an in-depth comparative gendered analysis. 3 table of contents executive summary 2 introduction 4 literature review 6 belonging amongst older people 6 social connectedness in low-income and middle-income countries 8 gender and cultural norms in social connectedness 10 methodology 12 examining social connectedness and belonging 12 ethics and limitations 14 results, discussion, and analysis 15 Participants drew on personal experience or what they had observed in others to indicate that the loss of eyesight and hearing resulted in uncomfortable social interactions and affected confidence for socialising. Full text views reflects PDF downloads, PDFs sent to Google Drive, Dropbox and Kindle and HTML full text views. Preceding the interview, most participants received at least two phone calls to discuss the research and build rapport and a level of trust with the interviewer; further relationship building occurred in person prior to the actual interview, particularly for the Māori, Pacific and Asian participants. Even the neighbours, I can't talk to them, I can't talk [means she can't speak English]. This is fair. Working with a diverse group of Pacific, Māori, Asian and New Zealand European older adults, this paper explores what matters to older people when discussing social connectedness? My sisters are ‘where are you? Twenty-six participants lived on their own, seven lived with their adult child, two with their grandchildren and two with borders (out of financial necessity). The local neighbourhood was on the whole treated as an ambiguous site for social connectedness. For example, some participants became more socially connected by joining and/or volunteering for organisations so as to give back to the community (Stephens et al., Reference Stephens, Breheny and Mansvelt2015), something especially important for Māori participants whose cultural values reflected relationships strengthened by the practice of maanakitanga (reciprocal caring) and for Pacific participants who privileged their spiritual communities. This played out in the mixed ethnicity group discussion where an initially jovial interaction ended on a more sober note: Interviewer: Once you start losing your hearing or maybe your eyesight, does that lead to loneliness too? Semi-structured interviews with older adults were conducted in three sites across New Zealand, purposively selected to enhance the possibility for inclusion of people who are often left out of research, and specifically to reflect New Zealand's cultural diversity (we aimed for at least ten interviews from each of four broad cultural groups: Māori, Pacific, NZ European (NZE) and Asian). (EF02). Seven of our participants had either a cat or a dog but they did not speak in any particular length about them. Inclusion criteria for participation included being a self-defined older person, self-identifying as wanting more company, and cognitively able to agree to and participate in an extended face-to-face interview. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. 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