Empowerment and community care – projecting the 'voice' of older people

This paper considers the implications for 'empowering' practice with older people within community care, exploring the restrictions placed on this by policy and practice, and how a postmodern perspective may encourage the participation of older people and ultimately empower them. Different theoretical approaches used to consider older people and the impact of ageism on the relationship between the self and society are explored. The impact of a postmodern approach to 'empowering'practice with older people is analysed, including discussion of the role of individual 'narrative', 'co-authorship' and 'expertise'as methods of empowering older people to have a 'voice'on both an individual and group level within community care systems.