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Social Inclusion and Communality of Volunteering: A Focus Group Study of Older People’s Experiences

The aim of this qualitative study was to describe the factors that motivate older people to volunteer and how volunteering influences their social inclusion and communality. Data were collected using focus group interviews in 2020–2021 from older people aged 65–81 years (n = 38) who had experience o...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tiittanen, Utta, Turjamaa, Riitta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9103720/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35564534
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095141
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author Tiittanen, Utta
Turjamaa, Riitta
author_facet Tiittanen, Utta
Turjamaa, Riitta
author_sort Tiittanen, Utta
collection PubMed
description The aim of this qualitative study was to describe the factors that motivate older people to volunteer and how volunteering influences their social inclusion and communality. Data were collected using focus group interviews in 2020–2021 from older people aged 65–81 years (n = 38) who had experience of volunteering in the community. The data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Based on the results, the experiences described by older people who participate in volunteering consisted of factors encouraging older people to volunteer and depended on the activation, support, and motivation of volunteer operators. The support provided by the health care services and volunteer action organization for volunteers was a key factor in encouraging older people to participate in volunteering. Moreover, volunteering impacted the communality of volunteers in several ways, influencing social capital. The sense of communality was enhanced by the way in which volunteering was carried out, including collaboration with health care services and associations. In order to strengthen the importance of volunteering in society, there is a need for close collaboration between voluntary organizations and health care service providers to develop volunteering because health care organizations cannot respond to all of the challenges faced by the ageing population.
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spelling pubmed-91037202022-05-14 Social Inclusion and Communality of Volunteering: A Focus Group Study of Older People’s Experiences Tiittanen, Utta Turjamaa, Riitta Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The aim of this qualitative study was to describe the factors that motivate older people to volunteer and how volunteering influences their social inclusion and communality. Data were collected using focus group interviews in 2020–2021 from older people aged 65–81 years (n = 38) who had experience of volunteering in the community. The data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Based on the results, the experiences described by older people who participate in volunteering consisted of factors encouraging older people to volunteer and depended on the activation, support, and motivation of volunteer operators. The support provided by the health care services and volunteer action organization for volunteers was a key factor in encouraging older people to participate in volunteering. Moreover, volunteering impacted the communality of volunteers in several ways, influencing social capital. The sense of communality was enhanced by the way in which volunteering was carried out, including collaboration with health care services and associations. In order to strengthen the importance of volunteering in society, there is a need for close collaboration between voluntary organizations and health care service providers to develop volunteering because health care organizations cannot respond to all of the challenges faced by the ageing population. MDPI 2022-04-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9103720/ /pubmed/35564534 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095141 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tiittanen, Utta
Turjamaa, Riitta
Social Inclusion and Communality of Volunteering: A Focus Group Study of Older People’s Experiences
title Social Inclusion and Communality of Volunteering: A Focus Group Study of Older People’s Experiences
title_full Social Inclusion and Communality of Volunteering: A Focus Group Study of Older People’s Experiences
title_fullStr Social Inclusion and Communality of Volunteering: A Focus Group Study of Older People’s Experiences
title_full_unstemmed Social Inclusion and Communality of Volunteering: A Focus Group Study of Older People’s Experiences
title_short Social Inclusion and Communality of Volunteering: A Focus Group Study of Older People’s Experiences
title_sort social inclusion and communality of volunteering: a focus group study of older people’s experiences
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9103720/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35564534
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095141
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