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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Re-conceptualising the status of residents in a care home
— older people wanting to 'live with care' | | Author(s) | Glenda Cook, Juliana Thompson, Jan Reed |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 35, no 8, September 2015 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, September 2015 |
| Pages | pp 1587-1613 |
| Source | journals.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Needs [elderly] ; Residents [care homes] ; Care homes ; Qualitative Studies. |
| Annotation | The construction of a meaningful life depends upon satisfying 'fundamental human needs'. These are broadly categorised as the physical, social and self-actualisation needs that every human experiences. Some fundamental human needs satisfiers, such as 'home', are synergic, and address more than one need. For an older person, the move to a care home compromises their ontological security (through disruption of identification with place and control over environment) that one's own 'home' provides. This paper explores the complex issues surrounding the residential status of care home residents in terms of fundamental human needs. The methodology utilised was hermeneutic phenomenology. Eight older residents participated in the study, and each resident was interviewed up to eight times over a period of six months. Narrative analysis was used to interpret how participants viewed their experiences and environment. Five themes emerged from the narratives that collectively demonstrate that residents wanted their residential status to involve 'living with care' rather than 'existing in care'. The five themes were: 'caring for oneself/being cared for'; 'being in control/losing control'; 'relating to others/putting up with others'; 'active choosers and users of space/occupying space'; and 'engaging in meaningful activity/lacking meaningful activity'. This study indicates that if care homes are to achieve synergic qualities so that residents are able to regard care homes as 'home', then care home staff may need to be more focused on recognising, acknowledging and supporting residents' aspirations regarding their future lives, and their status as residents. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-150814204 A |
| Classmark | IK: KX: KW: 3DP |
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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