Vulnerability amongst adults ageing with deafblindness
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The lived experience of vulnerability amongst adults ageing with deafblindness and the implications for safeguarding policy and practice
IRAS ID
144292
Contact name
Peter J Simcock
Contact email
Research summary
This research project will explore how adults ageing with deafblindness experience vulnerability and feeling
vulnerable. All people at some point in their lives experience feelings of being vulnerable, but deafblind people have
been described as some of the most vulnerable people in society. However, there is little research that explores the
perceptions of older deafblind people themselves in relation to vulnerability. Studies with sightedhearing
older
people have identified that they view vulnerability in ways different to the professionals who work with them. This
difference may impact on the effectiveness of care and safeguarding interventions: the risks people face may be
missed or intervention may be overprotective.
Exploring the perceptions of deafblind people themselves will help
develop a fuller understanding of the phenomenon.
The deafblind population is very diverse. This research will focus specifically on older people who have been
deafblind for the majority of their adult life. This includes those born deafblind, but also those who acquired
deafblindness in childhood or early adulthood. This is a population that has received very little attention in both policy
and research. As such, in addition to exploring vulnerability, a secondary objective of the research is to examine
deafblind people’s experiences of getting older.
The research project consists of two phases. Phase one is a systematic review of the literature, to determine the
current state of knowledge in the subject area. This involves identifying a range of literature (including user testimony)
and then analysing and synthesising this material to determine what is known about deafblind people’s experiences of
ageing and old age, and what is known about deafblind people’s vulnerability. Phase two involves indepth
interviews
with older deafblind people about their experiences. These interviews will be recorded, transcribed and then
analysed, with a focus on specific experiences and the way the participants interpret them.REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
13/IEC08/0049
Date of REC Opinion
13 Dec 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion