Building social capacity for older people through ICTs

Jeni WarburtonJohn Richards Research Initiative

La Trobe UniversityAustralia

Presentation outline

1. Australian rural context2. Potential of ICTs for older people in rural areas

1. Bonding social capital2. Bridging social capital3. Building social inclusion

3. Yet low levels of useage in Australia4. Challenges to use of ICTs in rural areas

1. Attitudes2. Access3. Capacity4. Practice issues

5. Local innovative responses1. Educational programs2. Access

Australian context

• Growing proportion of older people living in rural areas

• Internal migration• Struggle to provide health and community

services• Poorer health outcomes• Economic disadvantage • Tyranny of distance• Importance of social participation to healthy

ageing

ICTs and social capital

• Social capital: key social elements eg networks, reciprocal relationships, quality supports

• Bonding social capital – dense multi-functional ties and strong localised trust

• Bridging social capital – reciprocal connections in looser networks

• ICTs offer technological opportunities for social interaction & information exchange

• Can offer social capital benefits to rural, older populations

ICTs as social capital

• Technology can enable rural, older people to benefit from social capital

• Benefit from bonding social capital via close ties with quality supports– Contact with family / friends via internet– Intergenerational benefits– Broader community networks beyond locals

• From bridging social capital via increased access to expert knowledge– Health literacy– Information and services

ICTs and social inclusion

• Overall positive benefits for rural older people’s health and wellbeing

• Also benefits for social inclusion as a key policy concept

• Social inclusion highly relevant in ageing Australia (Lui et al. 2011)

• Minister Butler – ageing and social inclusion portfolios / Social Inclusion Board

ICTs and social inclusion

• Increased access via ICTs across continuum of care (e-health, information)

• Positive health outcomes• Communications with services, business• Helps meet social / community disadvantage

(eg social isolation) through social interaction, contact etc

• Build personal community• Particularly for the frail, those with disabilities,

carers

But who uses ICTs…?

• Thus, ICTs useful for social capital and social inclusion

• But low levels of useage by older people (8/10 adults frequent users, but only 4/10 aged 65+)

• Only 10% of older users self-rated their knowledge / skills above average

• Lower useage by women • Even lower useage by rural, older people

Source: ABS 2009 Household Use of Information Technology

Challenges to useage

• 2 general reasons for non-use amongst older people: Lack of interest, lack of skills (attitudes)

• In rural areas also got two further challenges:– Access– Capacity

• Access includes– Cost of infrastructure and access– Access to broadband outside cities

• Capacity includes– Lack of local IT support– Lack of appropriate training for useage

Further practice challenges

• Low digital literacy among rural, older people• Need for programs but often agencies not

utilising ICTs very well themselves• Resourcing and funding costs significant for

agencies to meet• So what is (and can be) done to meet these

challenges given the advantages of ICTs in the rural context?

Local innovative responses

• Need for both formal and informal ways for older people to build up digital skills/knowledge

• Educational programs– Based on active learning & confidence building– Specifically for seniors (Brainfitness classes); and for

women or carers– Need for one-on-one tuition recognising different

learning– Intergenerational or volunteer tutors

Local innovative responses

• IT access– Seed ICT use in other activities – Start small eg embed in other programs (eg find

recipe online in cooking program)– Share places to access eg health & aged care sites– Local internet cafes for easy informal access– Need to broker mass deals to reduce costs

Conclusion

• Growing importance of ICTs for both social capital and social inclusion of rural, older people

• In view of potential disadvantage associated with rural living, need to ensure that ICTs provide “equalising potential” (Prujit 2002)

• Otherwise reinforce social exclusion and rural (social, economic) disadvantage

• Rural, older populations need the capacity and support to access and engage in new technologies