title: Care partner dyad strategies to support participation in community mobility.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Factors supporting continued community mobility for older adults warrant attention due to the relationship between mobility, health, and social participation. Although community mobility is typically considered from the perspective of individual functional abilities, care partnerships represent a situation in which maintaining community mobility has implications for the well-being of all members.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this research was to explore and describe strategies used by older adult care partner dyads to support and maintain participation in community mobility.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ethnographic case studies of three care partner dyads were conducted using in-depth interviews, participant observation, photographs, and reciprocal data analysis. An inductive, constant comparative data analysis resulted in thematic descriptions of strategies employed by the care partner dyads.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three strategies were identified in collaboration with care partners: (i) Acting in accordance with the values of the relationship, (ii) Finding and using available assistive technology and (iii) Relying on social networks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Strategies identified by participants were more relational than procedural in nature, indicating the need for occupational therapists working with care partner dyads to consider historical routines, social connectedness, and needs of the care partnership in addition to functional abilities of the care recipient when addressing community mobility.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health Sciences, Division of Health and Rehabilitation , Luleå University of Technology , Luleå , Sweden ;|b Department of Allied Health Sciences, Division of Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science , the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , North Carolina , USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Womack
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health Sciences, Division of Health and Rehabilitation , Luleå University of Technology , Luleå , Sweden ;
authors.forename: Gunilla
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Isaksson
authors.affiliation: a Department of Health Sciences, Division of Health and Rehabilitation , Luleå University of Technology , Luleå , Sweden ;
authors.forename: Margareta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lilja
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D001334:Automobile Driving; D001642:Bicycling; D017028:Caregivers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018986:Motor Vehicles; D012656:Self-Help Devices; D058992:Social Participation; D012944:Social Support; D016138:Walking
keywords: Caregiver; case study community participation; ethnography; occupational therapy; older adult