About the data
In the late 1950s Peter Townsend conducted a major investigation of long-stay institutional care for old people in Britain. The results were published as The Last Refuge (1962). Townsend questioned whether long stay institutions for the elderly were still needed and, if so, whether improvements could be made in the nature of such provision. The study was groundbreaking in its use of qualitative research methods. In-depth interviews were conducted with 67 local authority chief welfare officers and with serving staff and residents of 173 institutions. Photographs and field notes about the condition of the buildings and the facilities were created. Diaries were also kept by a number of residents and staff.
The main topics covered were: old age, residential care of the elderly, care of dependants, retirement, isolation, nursing and welfare services.
How the data were used
The research team used the original data from Peter Townsend's seminal work The Last Refuge (1962) as the foundation of their follow up study ' 'The Last Refuge' Revisited: continuity and change in residential care for older people'.
The project began with a review of Townsend's research material and subsequent findings and recommendations. Then a tracing study was conducted to find out and document what happened to the institutions visited by Townsend. It was found that of the 173, 25 still existed as registered care homes and these were investigated further. This follow-up study broadly replicated Townsend's method allowing direct comparison of the situation in 2005 with the detailed original information on the individual homes. Publications emerging from the project include: Julia Johnson, Sheena Rolph and Randall Smith, Residential Care Transformed: Revisiting 'The Last Refuge' (Palgrave, 2010).
About the author
Julia Johnson and Sheena Rolph are in the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the Open University and Randall Smith is at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol. Their research interests include, but are not confined to, policies for older people and for people with learning difficulties.
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