The relationship between age and loneliness is intriguing. While loneliness has been widely perceived as a problem of old age, there is evidence suggesting that adolescence is the peak age for experiencing loneliness and there are demonstrable variations between nations in reported rates of loneliness. However, comparative data for examining both the prevalence of loneliness across age groups and across nations are sparse. As the first phase of a larger project, we explore the prevalence of loneliness across different age groups in 25 European nations, with a focus on people of an advanced age. After discussing issues of comparability, we present our empirical findings employing data collected in the third round (2006–07) of the European Social Survey (total sample size 47,099, age range 15–101) which included a ‘self-rating’ loneliness scale. Our results suggest that the prevalence of loneliness does increase with age for the combined sample. However, the nation in which one lives shows a greater impact than age on reported levels of loneliness, with Russia and Eastern European nations having the highest proportions of lonely people (about 10–34% for different age groups) and Northern European nations the lowest (mostly below 6%). Possible explanatory factors are identified and discussed, which provides the groundwork of a subsequent and formal study.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0144686X1000139X

Age and loneliness in 25 European nations

This paper considers the lack of choice in sheltered housing and residential/nursing care provision for older lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals in the UK. While there is a growing body of knowledge about their concerns about current options, the precise kinds of alternative provision which older LGB individuals would prefer are not yet well understood. This article reports on a qualitative study conducted in 2012 which aimed to explore ageing, gender and sexuality from an equalities perspective. The study deployed semi-structured interviews with 60 older LGB individuals living in the UK, and used a thematic analysis approach to the data. This paper describes one aspect of the data, relating to participants' concerns about health and social care provision. The analysis identified several key themes underpinning older LGB individuals' concerns about mainstream sheltered accommodation and residential care, namely: lack of visibility, risky visibility, unequal openness and compulsory co-occupation of care spaces. It highlights the significance of gender for housing/care preferences, with a greater proportion of older LGB women wanting gender- and/or sexuality-specific provision compared with men. The social policy, equality and human rights implications of these findings are considered.

'We see it as being heterosexualised, being put into a care home': gender, sexuality and housing/care preferences among older LGB individuals in the UK.

Ageing, Gender and Sexuality focuses on the experiences of older lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals, in order to analyse how ageing, gender and sexuality intersect to produce particular inequalities relating to resources, recognition and representation in later life. The book adopts a feminist socio-legal perspective to propose that these inequalities are informed by and play out in relation to temporal, spatial and regulatory contexts. Discussing topics such as ageing sexual subjectivities, ageing kinship formations, classed trajectories and anticipated care futures, this book provides a new perspective on older individuals in same-sex relationships, including those who choose not to label their sexualities.
Drawing upon recent empirical data, the book offers new theoretical approaches for understanding the intersectionality of ageing, gender and sexuality, as well as analysing the social policy implications of these findings. With an emphasis on the accounts of individuals who have experienced the dramatically changing socio-legal landscape for LGB people first-hand, this book is essential reading for students, scholars and policymakers working in the areas of: gender and sexuality studies; ageing studies and gerontology; gender, sexuality and law; equality and human rights; sociology; socio-legal studies; and social policy.
Ageing, Gender and Sexuality won the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Hart Prize for Early Career Academics for 2017.

Ageing, Gender and Sexuality: Equality in Later Life

Since the early 1980s, there has been increasing recognition that the health of individuals and communities is affected by social disadvantage. Following the election of the New Labour Government in 1997, social exclusion became a key concept in UK policymaking. Social exclusion approaches consider health outcomes to be linked to living and working conditions rather than, primarily, to healthcare interventions. Social exclusion is thus an important concept for nursing scholarship for understanding how people’s life circumstances may have an impact on their health. This paper analyses some of the theoretical underpinnings which may lead to recognition of the concept of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) social exclusion. The paper goes on to propose a model of the multidimensional aspects of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans social exclusion drawing on research evidence of the social, political and global inequalities experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people. In conclusion, it considers t...

Conceptualising social exclusion and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people: the implications for promoting equity in nursing policy and practice

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Paul Simpson, Kathrynn Almack, and Pierre Walthery, ‘ “We treat them all the same”: the attitudes, knowledge and practices of staff concerning old/er lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans residents in care homes’, Ageing and Society, first published online 29 December 2016, available online at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X1600132X Copyright: © Cambridge University Press 2016. Content in the UH Research Archive is made available for personal research, educational, and non-commercial purposes only. Unless otherwise stated, all content is protected by copyright, and in the absence of an open license, permissions for further re-use should be sought from the publisher, the author, or other copyright holder.

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‘We treat them all the same’: the attitudes, knowledge and practices of staff concerning old/er lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans residents in care homes

Creating anti-oppressive practices in service provision that successfully remove barriers to the social inclusion of older lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered (LGBT) citizens has proven thus far tremendously difficult. The White Paper, Better Care, Higher Standards: A Charter for Long Term Care, addresses the development of non-discriminatory services that treat users with dignity and respect, taking account of sexual orientation. Such government social policy holds out the hope that services will be designed to support senior LGBT people. This paper examines the unique oppression and marginalization faced by older lesbian, gay men, bisexual and transgendered citizens in homophobic and ageist societies, which often fail to acknowledge their existence. The research findings highlight strategies being created through social policy that aim to successfully achieve the inclusion of this group in the planning and delivery of their services.

Developing Inclusive Health and Social Care Policies for Older LGBT Citizens

The endurance of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation among gay and bisexual men persists despite advances in civil rights and wider social acceptance. While minority stress theory provides a framework for much scholarly debate as to the causes of mental distress among non-heterosexual men, there is a growing interest into the detrimental effects that competitiveness within the gay community itself can have. Past studies have celebrated involvement in gay culture as being associated with better mental health outcomes by tempering the impact of hegemonic heteronormativity. Yet between non-heterosexual men and the general population, there are stark mental health inequalities that require investigation. As a means of proving manhood, men in general are predisposed toward competitiveness and risk, but within a subculture where the attention is exclusively on male sex, the focus is primarily status conscious. This article draws on minority stress theory to consider societal discrimination. It also applies inter-minority gay community stress theory to explore pressures emanating from gay spaces with fixations on masculinity, income and rivalry as major sources of mental health problems in gay and bisexual men. The causes for health disparities illustrated in this article, demonstrate a critical need for public health and social care organizations to respond with innovatory services, based on a firm understanding of stressors arising from interactions between men in gay spaces. comparative

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Proving Manhood: Gay Culture, Competitiveness, Risk, and Mental Wellbeing

Feelings of marginalisation impact the lives of LGBT+ people in a fundamental way, but for those who have an intellectual disability, and are gay, there is a heightened sense of alienation. This article examines the unique oppression faced by these individuals in a heteronormative and ableist world, where a long history of extreme control of sexual intimacy has resulted in harsh forms of social exclusion. Although moves have been made to empower service users who are intellectually disabled and identify as LGBT+ to participate fully in life, there is also a need to assess the relationship between rights, responsibility, and risk. This article further explores whether by drawing upon government social policy, barriers are being dismantled through the development of innovative local strategies that aim to deliver non-discriminatory person-centred services.

https://philpapers.org/archive/CONELP.pdf

Empowering LGBT People with Intellectual Disabilities to Live Socially Inclusive Lives: Debating Rights, Responsibility, and Risk

Although queer families have become recognised over time, same-sex couples striving to become parents through adoption still represent a small percentage of the overall number of couples approved each year. Pathways to adoption have been shown to differ between heterosexual people, lesbians, and gay men. While many gay male couples report their interactions with social care systems have for the most part been positive, instances surface whereby gay men describe social care actors as lacking in a fundamental understanding of sexual identities. Heteronormativity has exercised a profound influence on scholarly research and social work practice, leading to a privileging of heterosexual couples as adopters. This article explores the experiences of gay men seeking to become adoptive fathers, and through an analysis of the decentering heteronormativity model, it challenges social workers to recognise the role played by heteronormative assumptions concerning queer families. Assumptions that include fears regarding the child’s developing sense of self, and the conviction that a child parented by a gay male couple can anticipate a less optimal outcome.

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Liam Concannon

Papers

Developing Inclusive Health and Social Care Policies for Older LGBT Citizens

Developing Inclusive Health and Social Care Policies for Older LGBT Citizens

Proving Manhood: Gay Culture, Competitiveness, Risk, and Mental Wellbeing

Empowering LGBT People with Intellectual Disabilities to Live Socially Inclusive Lives: Debating Rights, Responsibility, and Risk

Gay Men as Adoptive Fathers, Hegemonic Heteronormativity, and the Advent of the Queer Family