Can we access research?

by Val French

All over Australia they are doing it – masters and PHD students and lecturing staff studying older people, putting us like butterflies in a glass jar, or like guineas pigs in control cages, getting statistical measures valid, documenting results.

This is the ageing society, and we over 50s are the new research flavour of the century as academics climb the greasy pole of professional success in a world where ‘papers’ have become the doorway to success.

And we – their butterflies and guinea pigs – fight not just a never-ending battle for services, housing and justice for our older generations, we even have to fight for the right to be in at the kill, when the research is presented . . .

Conferences, costing big money to attend – often $150 or more a day – abound.

One would imagine that organisations manned by volunteer staff, battling for government grants and sponsorship to meet the needs and solve community issues, would be the first to be invited to review this research.

Well yes – if we are able to pay. Yet every dollar paid takes just that amount away from the services we provide.

Yet we need the evidence from the research if we are to raise money to meet needs.

Recently some conference organisers have begun to recognise the problem – this year’s National Gerontology Conference, and the International Conference on Longevity, invited us to attend and to give a display of our Media Awards, and ERA 2005 invited two of us to attend. We are grateful to them for recognising this need.

Perhaps one day a researcher will study organisations made up of older volunteers It would not be difficult to recognise our needs, and to reach the conclusion that justice demands that those who struggle to find the money to work for older people – and the community – should have easy access to research about themselves and their fellows, the new generation of guinea pigs!

Page updated November 14, 2008  | Copyright OPSO © 2008