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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Long-term care and a good quality of life
— bringing them closer together | | Author(s) | Rosalie A Kane |
| Journal title | The Gerontologist, vol 41, no 3, June 2001 |
| Pages | pp 293-304 |
| Keywords | Nursing homes ; Care homes ; Sheltered housing ; Policy ; Residents [care homes] ; Consumer ; Quality of life ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Long-term care policies and programmes in the US suffer from a major flaw: they are balanced toward a model of nursing home care that, regardless of its technical quality, tends to be associated with a poor quality of life for consumers. This article proposes high quality of life domains: security, comfort, meaningful activity, relationships, enjoyment, dignity, autonomy, privacy, individuality, spiritual well-being, and functional competence. These kinds of quality of life are being minimised in current quality assessment, and are given credence only after health and safety outcomes are considered. Five trends are reviewed that might lead to a more consumer-centred emphasis on quality of life: the disability rights movement; the emphasis on consumer direction; the growth of assisted living (e.g. sheltered housing); greater attention to physical environments; and efforts to bring about a change in culture in nursing homes. Building on these trends, strategies are suggested that move beyond polarised arguments towards forms of long-term care that are more compatible with a good quality of life. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-010718213 A |
| Classmark | LHB: KW: KLA: QAD: KX: WY: F:59: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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