Abstract
In Scotland’s social care system, decisions about support and care transitions are often shaped by professional and policy discourses, leaving older people and their families with limited involvement in key decisions. Although policy frameworks emphasise “choice and control,” communication remains dominated by professional language, and lived experiences are rarely used to inform care processes. This paper proposes an early-stage conceptual framework that considers how narrative theory and scenario-based co-design may contribute to a more user-centred understanding of decision-making for older people. Within this framework, a by-proxy approach is proposed, in which family carers are positioned to represent aspects of older people’s experiences. The framework outlines a way to gather, structure, and communicate experiences, with the aim of supporting reflection among carers and exploring how narrative experiences might be translated into scenario-based materials that could inform decision-making, while making the perspectives of older people and carers more visible.
Keywords
Ageing and social care; Narrative approaches; Scenario-based co-design; Carer-led proxy participation
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1068
Citation
Wang, S. (2026) An early-stage framework: Exploring narrative and co-design methods in the social care decision-making process for older people, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1068
Creative Commons License
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Included in
An early-stage framework: Exploring narrative and co-design methods in the social care decision-making process for older people
In Scotland’s social care system, decisions about support and care transitions are often shaped by professional and policy discourses, leaving older people and their families with limited involvement in key decisions. Although policy frameworks emphasise “choice and control,” communication remains dominated by professional language, and lived experiences are rarely used to inform care processes. This paper proposes an early-stage conceptual framework that considers how narrative theory and scenario-based co-design may contribute to a more user-centred understanding of decision-making for older people. Within this framework, a by-proxy approach is proposed, in which family carers are positioned to represent aspects of older people’s experiences. The framework outlines a way to gather, structure, and communicate experiences, with the aim of supporting reflection among carers and exploring how narrative experiences might be translated into scenario-based materials that could inform decision-making, while making the perspectives of older people and carers more visible.