INTRODUCTION: Significant benefits of companion animals (i.e., pets) for older adults are recognized and publications on Animal-Assisted Intervention, Animal-Assisted Activities and Animal-Assisted Therapies with older adults are growing. Studies on housing and community- residing older adults with companion animals from a non-utilitarian perspective on other animals, however, are rather limited.METHODS: For this scoping review, we used a Critical Animal Studies perspective, in particular, a trans-species social justice framework to address two questions: “What are the scope and size of the literature on housing for community living older adults with companion animals?” and “What is known from the existing literature?” We searched peer-reviewed publications from 1980 to 2019 by using MEDLINE, PsychINFO, ProQuest and Scopus.FINDINGS: Six works from Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and US met our criteria. A disturbing reality was discovered: Restrictive leasing (‘no pets’ for rental housing) among low-income older adults with companion animals in public housing has persisted for the last 40 years and prevents them from accessing affordable housing. Also, the discourse of pets as problems or risk seems to justify prohibiting older adults from living with companion animals.CONCLUSION: Utilising the concept of speciesism and a trans-species social justice framework for analysis, we argue that intersectional institutional oppression of speciesism and classism is a root cause of the situation. Justice for older adults cannot be achieved without justice for their companion animals. Future studies in human–animal relations and education and practice in social work need to incorporate ideas of speciesism and justice beyond humans.
IntroductionOlder adults are the fastest growing age group in Canada. Elder abuse has significant individual and societal implications, so it is critical to address. While interest in this topic is increasing, little is known about the risk factors for elder abuse in immigrant communities in Canada, or about culturally relevant strategies to address these risk factors.Methods and analysisThis mixed-methods study is guided by the intersectionality and ecological frameworks. We will include two long-term (ie, established) and two recent immigrant communities from East Asian and South Asian communities in the Greater Toronto Area: Chinese, Korean, Punjabi and Tamil. Through structured group interviews, we will first identify factors that contribute to elder abuse within and across each of the immigrant communities and then explore culturally relevant strategies to address those risk factors. Group interviews will be conducted separately with five stakeholder groups in each of the four languages: older women, older men, family members, community leaders and service providers. Quantitative and qualitative data will be analysed at the level of the particular interview groups, subgroups and communities, and will be integrated across communities to identify common and unique risk factors and strategies to address elder abuse.Ethics and disseminationThe study protocol has received ethics approval from the two universities associated with the research team. Given the comprehensive approach to incorporate local knowledge and expert contributions from multi-level stakeholders, the empirical and theoretical findings will facilitate practice change and improve the well-being of older men and women in immigrant communities.
RÉSUMÉLes connaissances d'ordre qualitatif concernant l'ethnie et le vieillissement sont encore rares et doivent être développées. La recherche qualitative sugère un voie prometteuse pour mieux comprendre les différents groupes ethniques ainsi que la différenciation à l'intérieur d'une même ethnie. Toutefois, ce type de recherche n'est pas sans problème. Cet article présente trois scénarios d'entrevue, examine certains problèmes identifiés dans la documentation existante ou rencontrés par l'auteur au cours de ses recherches, et soulève des questions importantes relativement à la conduite d'entrevues avec des personnes âgées provenant de communautés ethniques.
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