4 Simon Communities of Ireland homeless/have experience of homelessness as they age, become sick and face dying and death. b. Identify innovative policy and practice responses to address these issues as they impact on older people who are homeless/have experience of homelessness. c. Facilitate the empowerment of older people who use Simon services by enabling them to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to deal more effectively with these issues as they arise in their lifecycles. d. Facilitate staff, service users and volunteers across the individual Simon communities to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will enable them to advocate more effectively on these issues both with and for people who are using Simon services around the country. e. Integrate the research findings and recommendations into the campaigning and advocacy work carried out by the Simon Communities of Ireland at a national level. f. Support and facilitate policy and decision makers to become more informed about the needs of older people who are homeless or who have experience of homelessness and to make it easier for them to respond effectively to these issues. g. To contribute to the body of knowledge available. Specifically, it is hoped that other organisations working with people who are homeless/have experience of homelessness and organisations working with older people will become aware of these findings and integrate them into their work. 1.4 The research process The research process can be broken down into a number of different elements. The first stage in the process was the establishment of a Research Advisory Group, made up of individuals with a particular interest/expertise in the area of homelessness and/or ill health and/or dying. See Appendix 1 for details of the membership of this group. The purpose of this group was to oversee the research and this group met regularly throughout the research process to oversee progress and to provide support where it was required. The second part of the research was the literature review. This included a review of all relevant literature, including similar studies undertaken elsewhere. The third stage of the research was the primary data collection phase. This can be divided into two parts. The first part involved detailed one to one interviews with older people who were homeless or who had some previous experience of homelessness and who used the services of the Simon Communities around the country. (This meant that not all of the interviewees were homeless at the time of their participation in this study, some lived in local authority ‘accommodation’ and ‘others’ in their own home). The purpose of these interviews was to identify the needs and experiences of these individuals. A total of sixteen individuals were interviewed in eight locations around the country. (See Section 3 for details of the findings of these interviews). The second part of the data collection phase included interviews with experts, policy makers, academics and others working in this area. See Appendix 2 for details for the external stakeholders interviewed. The findings that emerged from the consultations with older people who are homeless or who have recent experience of homelessness and the interviews with key external stakeholders also formed the basis of a focus group discussion with the Simon Involvement and Action Group3. A seminar will be held at the end of the research process. Its purpose will be to share the research findings and the key learning arising from the study with key individuals and stakeholders, thus ensuring the findings from the study will be shared as widely as possible. 3 This is a group of people who use/have used Simon services.
Homelessness, Ageing and Dying
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