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Participant Observation as a Method for Evaluating a Mental Health Promotion Program with Older Persons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2010

Joseph A. Tindale
Joseph A. Tindale
Affiliation:
University of Guelph
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Abstract

This paper reports on an assessment of participant observation used for evaluation in a structured and gerontolgoical field context. Participant observation was used to evaluate whether a search conference was a viable means for older persons to identify community needs and create an ongoing community organization to address them. I attended planning meetings, the conference and a follow-up meeting. Observations were recorded in field notes and analysed to identify the decision-making processes. These older persons successfully engaged in a health promotion process whereby they exercised decisive direction in identifying and addressing health and social needs of importance to them. These results attest to the flexibility and applicability of participant observation in structured field settings with older persons who were circumstantially difficult to survey by other means. Participant observation is an effective method of collecting data on the process of how groups of older persons respond to a defined task through several observation points in time.

Résumé

Cet article décrit l'utilisation de l'observation participante à des fins d'évaluation dans un contexte gérontologique structuré. L'observation participante fut utilisée pour savoir si une « search conference » permet à des personnes âgées d'identifier les besoins de leur communauté et de mettre sur pied une organisation communautaire pour y répondre. Les observations étaient consignées dans des notes de terrain et analysées en vue d'identifier les mécanismes de prise de décision. Les personnes âgées observées ont mis sur pied avec succès un programme de promotion de la santé. Ce faisant, elles ont orienté de façon décisive l'identification et la prise en charge de besoins sociaux et de santé importants pour elles. Les résultats obtenus attestent la flexibilité et la pertinence de l'observation participante sur des terrains de recherche structurés impliquant des personnes âgées. L'observation participante apparaît comme une méthode efficace pour recueillir des données sur un processus, à savoir comment un groupe de personnes âgées répond à une tâche spécifique à divers moments dans le temps.

Keywords

Participant ObservationQualitative MethodologyHealth Promotion Evaluation.Observation participanteméthodologie qualitativeévaluation de la promotion de la santé.
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 12 , Issue 2: Qualitative Methods/Les méthodes qualitatives , Été/Summer 1993 , pp. 200 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 1993

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