Homelessness, Ageing and Dying 5 1.5 A definition of older people According to the CSO4, average life expectancy is currently 76.8 for men and 81.6 for women. In that context numerous definitions of ‘older people’ exist at government and statistical level. Historically, the term was applied to persons of pensionable age. The Department of Social Protection, for example, have introduced 55 as the age cut-off point between unemployment benefits and ‘pre-retirement’ (you could no longer be unemployed at 56). Programmes run by older people’s non-governmental organisations (e.g. Active Retirement) increasingly attract participants under 60 (though generally nearer 60 than 50). Definitions of age status for people who are homeless/have experience of homelessness vary from study to study, given that individuals who have experience of homelessness over a sustained period/s have generally been found to have a lower life expectancy than other groups. The interim findings of a recent University of Sheffield study 5 investigating homeless mortality in England found the average age of death of a man who is homeless is 47 years old. It is even lower for women at just 436. This study is particularly interesting because it looks at the mortality of single people who are homeless and includes those who are sleeping rough, in hostels and in other hidden homeless situations. Problematic drug and alcohol use were found to have accounted for just over a third of all deaths, while people who were homeless were over 9 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population. In addition, deaths as a result of traffic accidents were 3 times as likely, infections twice as likely and falling over 3 times as likely among this group. The growing consensus is that persons aged 50 and over have lower life expectancies and mortality rates higher than the general population and should therefore be included in the “older homeless” category7. 1.6 Ethics This study was undertaken according to the Social Policy Association guidelines on research ethics8 which require that research participants ‘participate in the research on the basis of freely given consent and that their participation does not expose them to avoidable harm’. Key strategies put in place in this study to ensure the application of these guidelines included: • Strategies to protect the research participants’ rights, interests, sensitivities, privacy and maintenance of confidentiality included the use of pseudonyms and the removal of all information that could be used to identify a particular individual or indeed their location. • Informed consent –participation in this research required the individuals involved to give informed and written consent. Initial contact with potential research participants was initiated by Simon staff. Where a particular individual expressed an interest in considering involvement in the study the Simon staff member provided them with more details of the study (in terms of what their participation in the research would involve, who is funding the research and the likely use that will be made of the research findings). Based on that information the potential interviewees were asked to make a decision about whether they wanted to consider participation or not. If they decided they were still interested, the Simon staff member contacted the researcher to arrange a time and location for the interview. The choice of venue for the interview was the decision of the research participant. The research participant also had a choice about whether they wanted 4 http://www.cso.ie/Quicktables/GetQuickTables.aspx?FileName=VSA30.asp&TableName=Life+Expectancy&StatisticalProduct= DB_VS 5 Crisis (2011) Homelessness: A silent killer: A research briefing on mortality amongst homeless people 6 Research has also found that people who have serious mental illness like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder can have a life expectancy 10 to 15 years lower that than the UK average according to research undertaken by the Biomedical Research Centre for Mental health at Maudsley Hospital in London in 2011 (Chang et al.) 7 National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) Factsheet No. 15 (2007) Homelessness among Elderly Persons, USA. http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/elderly.html 8 SRA Social Policy Association Guidelines on Research Ethics
Homelessness, Ageing and Dying
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