Diverse older women : narratives negotiating frailty

This study explores women's narratives from within and outside of the frail/non-frail binary of public home care services. It focuses on the stories that are commonly told about older women's needs and bodies and the regulatory potential of these accounts. Considering power, language, diversity and change, this study focuses on the way that twelve diverse older women at various social locations (e.g., ability, age, culture, ethnicity, 'race', sexual orientation, and socio-economic status) understand, make meaning, and negotiate the concept of frailty in relation to their everyday lives. The sample includes six women considered 'frail' in relation to service (i.e., according to clinical judgement & home care eligibility guidelines), as well as women not considered 'frail' (i.e., non-service recipients).The twelve older women's storied responses, illustrations and experiences challenge the various stories that are told about them. Their complex accounts both reflect and reject dominant notions, blur the boundary between the frail and non-frail classifications, expose frailty as contextual, temporal and relative, as well as illustrate the connections between medical and social needs. Their individual accounts highlight how they make meaning of their life events in relation to their diverse experiences and identities, as well as how these identities and interpretations are key to their negotiations of life and needs. The variations between the imposed stories about frailty and women's self-perceptions highlight the research, policy and practice relevance of a narrative approach focused on in-depth local accounts, raise questions about the current priorities within home care services, as well as the future of social work practice with older women considered frail