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This paper explores how the residential aged care sector could engage with residents' sexual expression and intimacy. It is informed by a study of 19 aged care staff members and 23 community members, and initially designed on the principles of Appreciative Inquiry methodology. The data were collected through focus groups and interviews and analyzed using discourse analysis. We found that staff members mainly conceptualize sexual expression as a need to be met, while community members (current and prospective residents) understand it as a right to be exercised. We conclude that the way in which sexual expression is conceptualized has critical implications for the sector's engagement with this topic. A 'needs' discourse informs policies, procedures and practices that enable staff to meet residents' needs, while a 'rights' discourse shapes policies, practices and physical designs that improve residents' privacy and autonomy, shifting the balance of power towards them. The former approach fits with a nursing home medical model of care, and the latter with a social model of service provision and consumption.

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This article draws on data from an internet survey of 67 Australian baby boomers, now in their 50s and 60s, that explores the influence of ageing on their sexual expression. Utilizing a form of narrative analysis, express attention is given to what the data reveal about the 25 baby boomers (37.5% of the sample) who consider their sexual orientations and preferences to be not exclusively heterosexual or homosexual. The findings indicate that ageing is attributed considerable and favourable importance by this non-exclusive subset of baby boomers in the reappraisal of their sexual orientations or preferences.