Exploring Healthy Ageing in Place for Roma Communities
Insights from Knowledge Café Workshops in the UK
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11297051 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ryan Woolrych (0000-0002-4310-8455, Heriot-Watt University, corresponding author), Aleksandar Marinov (Heriot-Watt University), Judith Sixsmith (0000-0002-3290-1343, University of Dundee), Margaret Greenfields (0000-0003-3587-6937, Anglia Ruskin University), Rosamaria E Kostic Cisneros (0000-0002-8169-0642, Coventry University), Rosemary Cisneros, Petr Torak (Peterborough City Hospital), Ann Hyde (Trusted Renewables (United Kingdom)), Crina Morteanu (Luton and Dunstable Hospital), Gaba Smolinska-Poffley (Future Science Group (United Kingdom)) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0169-3816 • E-ISSN: 1573-0719 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10823-026-09561-4 |
| PMID | 41842995 |
| OpenAlex | W7138116391 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 53 |
Healthy ageing is increasingly understood as a process shaped by intersecting structural, social and environmental conditions. Yet dominant frameworks often fail to account for how marginalisation and place-based exclusion are lived and navigated by structurally excluded groups. This is especially true for older Roma communities, who remain significantly overlooked in both research and policy on ageing. Drawing on qualitative data from Knowledge Café workshops held in Govanhill (Glasgow, Scotland), Luton and Peterborough (England), this paper explores how place, identity and inequity shape experiences of healthy ageing within Roma communities. These workshops brought together policymakers and practitioners alongside Roma community members and advocacy groups. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we identify four key themes: (1) mistrust of health services and linguistic exclusion; (2) the symbolic and practical dimensions of ‘home’ in supporting ageing-in-place; (3) gendered and spatialised experiences of social isolation; and (4) the significance of community-led and culturally competent initiatives. Our findings highlight the critical importance of locally embedded responses that support culturally meaningful pathways to healthy ageing. We argue for a fundamental reframing of healthy ageing policy, toward co-produced, place-based and equity-driven approaches that recognise intersecting inequalities and value the lived expertise of marginalised older populations
Active ageing · Cognitive reframing · Healthy ageing · Identity (music) · Lived experience · Qualitative research · Reflexivity · Social constructionism · Social exclusion · Thematic analysis · Inclusive Education and Diversity · Race, Genetics, and Society · Romani and Gypsy Studies
Seeking Spatial Justice
Supporting best practice in reflexive thematic analysis reporting in Palliative Medicine
Assessing disparities in health and living conditions
Aging Well for Indigenous Peoples
In the margins of stigma
A worked example of Braun and Clarke’s approach to reflexive thematic analysis
Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis
A Community-Based Participatory Action Research for Roma Health Justice in a Deprived District in Spain
"There's no kind of respect here" A qualitative study of racism and access to maternal health care among Romani women in the Balkans
Loneliness and social isolation of ethnic minority/immigrant older adults
Definitions, key themes and aspects of ‘ageing in place’
Inequalities in older LGBT people's health and care needs in the United Kingdom
Neighborhood environment, healthy aging, and social participation among ethnic minority adults over 50
Navigating the labyrinth
Identifying a Human Rights Approach to Roma Health Vulnerabilities and Inequalities in Europe
Ageing Migrants and the Creation of Home
Social work and the Roma community
Perspectives on ageing, later life and ethnicity
Constructing and negotiating social participation in old age
You really do become invisible’
Urban Roma, segregation and place attachment in Szeged, Hungary
Healthy ageing and home
Roma populations and health inequalities
Excavating Lefebvre
The Meaning of "Aging in Place" to Older People
Dependence, independence or inter-dependence? Revisiting the concepts of 'care' and 'dependency
Loneliness among older ethnic minority people
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |