Talking to the elderly in New Zealand residential care settings

• Interactions between caregivers and the elderly are rich and complex.
• Interactions are usefully analysed as joint constructions.
• Identification of positive relational dimension challenges tenor of earlier research.
• Analysis of small talk and humour supports solidarity – oriented interpretation.

How people talked to the elderly was the focus of a flurry of research in the later decades of the twentieth century. Since then, despite a steady rise in the number of elderly people throughout the world, the topic seems to have been somewhat neglected. Much of the earlier research focussed on the ways in which doctors, nurses, and caregivers talked to elderly people, with some attention to how this talk was evaluated by others. Interactions were generally not analysed as joint constructions, and the elderly person's responses generally went unconsidered. The overwhelming message was rather bleak and negative, suggesting that once a person could be classified as elderly, they were likely to be patronised, disrespected, and even treated like a child. In this paper, we re-examine these issues on the basis of our New Zealand research in eldercare facilities. Our data suggests that interactions between carers and elderly residents are rich and complex, often raising issues of face threat for both participants. Our analysis of these interactions provides an alternative and more positive perspective than that which dominated a good deal of earlier research.