UNFOLDING FAMILIARITY: RESUMING DAILY OCCUPATION BY OLDER PERSONS WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITIES, IN JAPAN

Background: As older persons increasingly recover from health conditions within their home and community, there is a need to gain a greater understanding of how they resume occupations in daily life contexts. The aim of this... [ view full abstract ]

Background:
As older persons increasingly recover from health conditions within their home and community, there is a need to gain a greater understanding of how they resume occupations in daily life contexts. The aim of this study was to explore and understand how engaging in daily occupations unfolds over time for some older persons with physical disabilities, in Japan.
Method:
This study followed a narrative-in-action research approach (Josephsson and Alsaker, 2015), further informed by a transactional theory. Data was gathered through qualitative interviews and participant-observations conducted with four participants at two to three weeks’ intervals over six months, with a follow-up visit at nine months. Narrative methods of emplotment were used to analyze the qualitative data.
Results:
Though participants experienced situations that were unfamiliar, familiarity was a quality that often assisted participants to deal with ambiguities and challenges met in their daily life. Further, participants strived for repertoires of past, changed and new occupations that created familiarity in terms of fulfilling their occupational needs and meanings. Familiarity also emerged as engaging in occupations in line with participants’ expectations, which were possible to be adjusted to changing situations.
Conclusion:
Plots illustrated a central role for ‘unfolding familiarity’. It is created and re-created as daily life situations evolve. This was seen as familiarity unfolding.
Application to Practice:
Unfolding familiarity is put forth as a possible way of understanding the resumption of occupation of older persons with physical disability.