Exploring Healthy Ageing in Place for Roma Communities: Insights from Knowledge Café Workshops in the UK

TY - JOUR

T1 - Exploring Healthy Ageing in Place for Roma Communities

T2 - Insights from Knowledge Café Workshops in the UK

AU - Woolrych, Ryan

AU - Marinov, Aleksandar

AU - Sixsmith, Judith

AU - Greenfields, Margaret

AU - Cisneros, Rosemary

AU - Torak, Petr

AU - Hyde, Ann

AU - Morteanu, Crina

AU - Smolinska-Poffley, Gaba

N1 - © The Author(s) 2026

PY - 2026/3/17

Y1 - 2026/3/17

N2 - Healthy ageing is increasingly understood as a process shaped by intersecting structural, social and environmental conditions. Yet dominant frameworks often fail to account for how marginalisation and place-based exclusion are lived and navigated by structurally excluded groups. This is especially true for older Roma communities, who remain significantly overlooked in both research and policy on ageing. Drawing on qualitative data from Knowledge Café workshops held in Govanhill (Glasgow, Scotland), Luton and Peterborough (England), this paper explores how place, identity and inequity shape experiences of healthy ageing within Roma communities. These workshops brought together policymakers and practitioners alongside Roma community members and advocacy groups. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we identify four key themes: (1) mistrust of health services and linguistic exclusion; (2) the symbolic and practical dimensions of ‘home’ in supporting ageing-in-place; (3) gendered and spatialised experiences of social isolation; and (4) the significance of community-led and culturally competent initiatives. Our findings highlight the critical importance of locally embedded responses that support culturally meaningful pathways to healthy ageing. We argue for a fundamental reframing of healthy ageing policy, toward co-produced, place-based and equity-driven approaches that recognise intersecting inequalities and value the lived expertise of marginalised older populations.

AB - Healthy ageing is increasingly understood as a process shaped by intersecting structural, social and environmental conditions. Yet dominant frameworks often fail to account for how marginalisation and place-based exclusion are lived and navigated by structurally excluded groups. This is especially true for older Roma communities, who remain significantly overlooked in both research and policy on ageing. Drawing on qualitative data from Knowledge Café workshops held in Govanhill (Glasgow, Scotland), Luton and Peterborough (England), this paper explores how place, identity and inequity shape experiences of healthy ageing within Roma communities. These workshops brought together policymakers and practitioners alongside Roma community members and advocacy groups. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we identify four key themes: (1) mistrust of health services and linguistic exclusion; (2) the symbolic and practical dimensions of ‘home’ in supporting ageing-in-place; (3) gendered and spatialised experiences of social isolation; and (4) the significance of community-led and culturally competent initiatives. Our findings highlight the critical importance of locally embedded responses that support culturally meaningful pathways to healthy ageing. We argue for a fundamental reframing of healthy ageing policy, toward co-produced, place-based and equity-driven approaches that recognise intersecting inequalities and value the lived expertise of marginalised older populations.

KW - Roma communities

KW - healthy ageing

KW - place-based approaches

KW - ageing-in-place

KW - United Kingdom

U2 - 10.1007/s10823-026-09561-4

DO - 10.1007/s10823-026-09561-4

M3 - Article

C2 - 41842995

SN - 0169-3816

VL - 41

JO - Journal of Cross Cultural Gerontology

JF - Journal of Cross Cultural Gerontology

M1 - 14

ER -