La Trobe

Cycling Without Age: An Australian residential aged care home experience

Download (253.73 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-07-26, 04:09 authored by EV Cyarto, M Dickins, Claudia Meyer, J Lowthian
Objective: Cycling Without Age (CWA) involves taking residents on outdoor trishaw (electric bicycle) rides driven by trained ‘pilots’. This study explored the CWA experience from the perspective of residents and family members, staff and volunteer pilots from a residential aged care home in Queensland, Australia. Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was used. Interviews were conducted with 21 participants. Transcripts were analysed thematically, with the interview questions determining a priori categories followed by coding of central themes. Results: Several themes emerged. For residents, seeing familiar places prompted reminiscences, and being outdoors elicited positive emotions. Family members reported CWA was a novel way to be with their loved one. Enabling residents to have time away from the care home with community contact was rewarding for pilots. Staff noted improvement in residents' mood post-ride, however, rides needed to be scheduled to fit in with their workflow. Conclusions: Cycling Without Age was perceived to offer a unique and meaningful experience, with benefits including sharing stories, being outside, and feeling part of the community.

History

Publication Date

2022-09-01

Journal

Australasian Journal on Ageing

Volume

41

Issue

3

Pagination

8p. (p. e249-e256)

Publisher

Wiley

ISSN

1440-6381

Rights Statement

© 2022 The Authors. Australasian Journal on Ageing published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of AJA Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Usage metrics

    Journal Articles

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC