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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| The social lives of rural Australian nursing home residents | | Author(s) | Glenda Parmenter, Mary Cruickshank, Rafat Hussain |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 32, part 2, February 2012 |
| Pages | pp 329-353 |
| Source | http://www.journals.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Nursing homes ; Care homes ; Residents [care homes] ; Social contacts ; Friendship ; Family relationships ; Loneliness ; Isolation ; Well being ; Rural areas ; Australia. |
| Annotation | Visits from family and friends are very important to the quality of the lives of rural nursing home residents. The aim of this study was to focus on the relationships of nursing home residents with people external to the nursing home, and to examine the factors that predict more frequent visiting. Telephone surveys were conducted with the designated next-of-kin of 257 residents in 13 residential care facilities in a rural area of New South Wales, Australia. The findings showed that the wider, potential, social networks of rural nursing home residents comprised approximately 17 people and involved a wide range of family and friends. However, their actual social networks consisted of approximately two females, daughters and friends, who had high-quality relationships with the resident and who visited at least once per month. The findings show that, in contrast to previous assertions that nursing home residents have robust support from their family and friends, the actual social networks of these residents have dwindled considerably over recent years, which may place them at risk of social isolation. Recommendations are made for rural nursing homes to help address the risk of social isolation faced by their residents. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-120402008 A |
| Classmark | LHB: KW: KX: TOA: DS:SX: DS:SJ: DV: TP: D:F:5HH: RL: 7YA |
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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