Defining resilience in the face of uncertainty: an explication of hope and coping with Parkinson’s disease in rural Australia

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is synonymous with uncertainty; people experience the trajectory and symptomology differently. The thesis explored how people living with PD in rural and regional Australia were engaging in hopeful coping strategies which lent themselves to the process of resilience. The literature points to a gendered difference in coping, along with intersectional effects associated with age, place and illness. Yet few researchers have explored how and why these social determinants might be moderating the process of resilience for people with PD. The mixed method approach to the data collection and analysis was based on feminist- pragmatic epistemology. Results revealed that people were actively engaging in creative and flexible strategies which are explored and situated in the contexts of gender, power and place. This approach to knowledge enabled a working definition of resilience to emerge which contributed to and expanded on current knowledge through the discovery of an inclusive definition of resilience for the participants. It also provided a working definition that highlighted novel ways of coping with and persevering with PD which might be explored further.