TY - JOUR AU - Ormandy, Paula AU - L. Seekles, Maaike AU - Ahmed, Anya PY - 2019 DA - 2019/01/24 TI - An Examination of How the ‘Household Model' of Care Can Contribute to Positive Ageing for Residents in the ‘Fourth Age’ JO - OBM Geriatrics SP - 030 VL - 03 IS - 01 AB - Promoting a good quality of life for the oldest members of society has become a top priority as evidenced in UK policy. The ‘household’ model is a departure from traditional approaches to care provision since it offers person-centred support - combing health and social care - to older people in specially-designed, small, homelike environments. Having gained increasing popularity in care homes across developed countries, the impact of this model of service delivery on residents’ quality of life and its contribution to positive ageing is of increasing interest. Belong is a not-for-profit, UK care organisation currently operating several villages under the household model. The villages comprise independent living apartments (bought or rented) and residential/nursing care households offering 24 hours personalised, on-site care for residents. In each village there is a range of facilities open to the public (including a Bistro, hairdressers and gym facilities) and a domiciliary community service. In this paper we present new data generated from qualitative interviews with a sample of household residents in the ‘fourth age’ and relatives across two villages in the North West of England, UK. We examine how the household model as operated at Belong facilitates the maintenance of autonomy and independence among residents and how this contributes to positive ageing and quality of life as they define it. We also explore the impediments to positive ageing being achieved and how these might be overcome. In addition to our addition of empirical evidence, we also make a theoretical contribution by explicating the applicability and limitations of continuity theory to explain experiences of positive ageing in the fourth age in a care home environment. SN - 2638-1311 UR - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.geriatr.1901030 DO - 10.21926/obm.geriatr.1901030 ID - Ormandy2019 ER -