IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section A

Abstract

As Asia rapidly ages, shrinking workforces and rising healthcare costs challenge social and economic systems. To adapt, healthcare policy makers, professionals, and administrators are shifting towards preventative care and community development. These strategies leverage community assets to improve health and manage chronic disease burden through informal care networks. Community assets are resources in the community that generates value for members, examples are: fitness centers, gardens, and rehabilitation facilities. Healthcare professionals draw on social capital in these community assets to support vulnerable patient segments. Regardless how members of the community engage with community assets to co-create and co-destroy value remains an area to be investigated. Empowering actors to build their own skills and capacities strengthens community by fostering greater agency and sense of ownership. However excessive reliance and the overconsumption of community resources without the accompanying efforts to build individual capacity can lead to missed opportunities for actors to contribute their unique talents and perspectives thereby weakening the collective community efforts and result in a service-dependence trap, hindering sustainable community development. This research leverages the photovoice methodology to explore how patients of a Singapore community hospital engage with community assets for the co-creation and co-destruction of value. Using the theoretical lens of customer engagement theory in marketing, we gain insights into value co-creation and co-destruction as different constituent actors engage the epistemology of assets. This research informs healthcare policy makers, administrators as well as urban planners in building and developing community assets when designing communities to complement ageing well in societies.