Chelsea Size is a narrative practitioner who lives and works on unceded Peramangk and Kaurna country (Adelaide, South Australia). Chelsea currently works as a spiritual care coordinator in aged care. She is an ordained deacon in the Uniting Church and is trained as an occupational therapist. Chelsea graduated from the Master of Narrative Therapy and Community Work program at The University of Melbourne in 2022 and has since become a faculty member and part of the Dulwich Centre teaching team.
This audio practice note describes the generation of a collective document of insider knowledges about living with loneliness with older people living in Eldercare residential aged care homes. In Western societies, older people’s skills, knowledges and values can be treated as irrelevant and obsolete, perhaps especially so for those who are living in residential aged care. Considering the discourses around ageing, frailty and loneliness, this audio note reflects on the operations of modern power and opportunities to address a sense of personal failure in aged care using collective documents. Sharing different stories from those that are publicly told about older people receiving care or living with dementia, the collective document described in this audio note makes visible older people’s overlooked and diverse skills, know-how and responses in relation to their experiences of loneliness. The practice note also reflects on the process of stepping outside familiar aged care/biomedical processes to publish a collective document in a large not-for-profit organisation. The folks who contributed to this collective document hope you feel less alone after reading their stories and would love to hear any responses from you and/or your communities!
Key words: older people; ageing; loneliness; aged care; therapeutic document; collective document; narrative therapy; collective narrative practice
Size, C. (2025). Wisdom on living with loneliness [Audio recording]. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (2). https://doi.org/10.4320/OEOF3314
Author pronouns: she/her
The collective document described in the audio can be downloaded here.
References
Denborough, D. (2008). Collective narrative practice: Responding to individuals, groups, and communities who have experienced trauma. Dulwich Centre Publications.
Myerhoff, B. (1992). Remembered lives: The work of ritual, storytelling, and growing older. University of Michigan Press.
Neves, B. B., & Petersen, A. (2024). The social stigma of loneliness: A sociological approach to understanding the experiences of older people. Sociological Review, 73(2), 362–383.
Trudinger, M. (2024). Recovery planning with communities at the heart. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 39(2), 62–66.
White, M. (2002). Addressing personal failure. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (3), 33–76.
Wingard, B., & Lester, J. (2001). Telling our stories in ways that make us stronger. Dulwich Centre Publications.