Challenges Related to Recruitment and Involvement of Frail Older People in Service Development

BACKGROUND: Involving relevant stakeholders in development or improvement of community health services is rapidly increasing and found to be of pivotal importance for the success of the service. Involvement can help identify priorities, understand the problem, and find solutions. However, frail older people are often hard to reach, and can be an underrepresented group in terms of involvement in community health services. If community health services targeted frail older people, are expected to benefit their health and well-being, the voices of this group need to be heard and taken into consideration. The objective was to involve frail older people in the development of a health service offered in municipal senior centers, aiming to improve frail older peoples’ possibilities of accessing the social communities of senior center and thereby improve their health and well-being. METHODS: The involvement was carried out as continuous panel meetings throughout the development process with a panel consisting of five senior center users, recruited through a senior center staff member functioning as gatekeeper. One researcher facilitated the panel meetings. RESULTS: The involvement brought forth important knowledge about the need of frail older people, when wanting to become part of a social community. Nevertheless, two main challenges emerged during the involvement period: 1) Recruiting frail older people proved difficult albeit a gatekeeper being used and 2) Facilitation of, and the methods used for, the panel meetings should be appropriate for involvement of the specific target group, in this case frail older people, to allow for all participants to be heard. CONCLUSIONS: Considerations about the involvement concepts, methods and facilitation are crucial in order for challenges linked to involvement to be minimized, making it possible for the needs of frail older people to be heard and met in the development or improvement of community health services.