Understanding older people’s experiences of care home closure through the lenses of precarity and transition

This article addresses a gap in current evidence by examining the experiences of older people and families when care homes close. We adopt the dual lenses of the precarity of ageing and adaptation to transition to facilitate understanding of the structural and experiential dimensions of care home closure. We argue that the experiences of older people and their families of care home closure are a largely hidden example of the increasing precarity of later life arising from the volatility of care markets and the ontological precariousness experienced by people of advanced age who are reliant on these same markets for care.