image credit: Michael Lawless
Untangling Frailty-
Winner of the 2018 South Australia Perform Your Science Competition, Inspiring South Australia
What does it mean to be frail? In research communities, the word “frailty” carries a specific medical meaning. Yet, little is known about how older people understand frailty and frailty screening. In order to help inform research, practice and policy in South Australia, we conducted an in-depth qualitative research study about frailty with 49 South Australians aged 65 to 99 years. With support from Inspire SA, we then created an interdisciplinary performance work to bring awareness to an often pushed-aside topic with broad impact: 1 in 4 older people aged 85 and older are frail. However, contrary to common belief, frailty is not an inevitable result of ageing, and may also be reversible. Untangling Frailty explores themes from that research, highlighting older persons experiences, fears, and misconceptions about frailty, and what it means to age in a youth-obsessed society.
We tell our research story by chronicling a young man’s journey through day-to-day life in a productivity and consumer-driven society. As time passes, the man’s experience of the world becomes increasingly chaotic; he is assailed by agents of ageing, and eventually becomes entangled in frailty. “Untangling frailty” explores how the complex meanings, fears, and misconceptions about frailty and ageing are intertwined with our experiences of the world, and reminds us that our environment and how we see ourselves are critical parts of how we age.
Winner of the 2018 South Australia Perform Your Science Competition, Inspiring South Australia
What does it mean to be frail? In research communities, the word “frailty” carries a specific medical meaning. Yet, little is known about how older people understand frailty and frailty screening. In order to help inform research, practice and policy in South Australia, we conducted an in-depth qualitative research study about frailty with 49 South Australians aged 65 to 99 years. With support from Inspire SA, we then created an interdisciplinary performance work to bring awareness to an often pushed-aside topic with broad impact: 1 in 4 older people aged 85 and older are frail. However, contrary to common belief, frailty is not an inevitable result of ageing, and may also be reversible. Untangling Frailty explores themes from that research, highlighting older persons experiences, fears, and misconceptions about frailty, and what it means to age in a youth-obsessed society.
We tell our research story by chronicling a young man’s journey through day-to-day life in a productivity and consumer-driven society. As time passes, the man’s experience of the world becomes increasingly chaotic; he is assailed by agents of ageing, and eventually becomes entangled in frailty. “Untangling frailty” explores how the complex meanings, fears, and misconceptions about frailty and ageing are intertwined with our experiences of the world, and reminds us that our environment and how we see ourselves are critical parts of how we age.