Ageing International最新文献

Concern about residential long-term care quality and safety is a critical issue in developed countries internationally, often fueled by media scandals exposing riveting accounts of resident-to-resident aggression/responsive behaviours. These scandals raise questions about standards of care set through long-term care regulation. Using a participatory action research approach and document analysis method, we analyzed incidents related to responsive behaviours documented in three types of public version inspection reports posted for 535 Ontario, Canada long-term care homes from 2016 through 2018. Creation of an Individual Home Data Collection and Analysis Tool facilitated data collation and descriptive statistical analysis of seven long-term care service areas in the province of Ontario. Results highlight several combined service areas differences between for-profit and not-for-profit home documentation related to responsive behaviours in (a) resident quality inspection means; (b) total complaint and critical incident proportions and means; (c) total enforcement actions proportions; and (d) enforcement penalties. We discovered that documented evidence of incidents related to responsive behaviours was instead represented by other sections of the legislation. The highest proportion of enforcement actions related to responsive behaviours involved no follow-up by inspectors and only four enforcement penalties over three years. Recommendations include revision of the inspection report judgement matrix tool to produce separate enforcement actions specific to responsive behaviours. We submit that attending to this will contribute to protecting long-term care residents from harm and improving their quality of care through more effective connection of long-term care regulation to responsive behaviour care management.

As populations across the world age, there is a recognised need for promoting social participation in older adults. Previous studies related to social participation have addressed that interactions perceived as meaningful may improve quality of life in old age. However, what is less clear is the nature of such participation from the perspective of older adults, as the vast majority of studies have been quantitative. The present study aimed to explore what characterises social participation that contributes to a meaningful everyday life, from the viewpoint of independently living Finnish older adults. Thematic analysis was used as an interpretative method drawing on semi-structured in-depth interviews with six residents aged 82 to 97 years from one senior housing facility. The analysis showed that social participation perceived as meaningful involved caring reciprocal interactions with people they connected with; having the freedom to make autonomous decisions and influence matters that affected their own or others' everyday life; and, on a more abstract level, feeling significant as a person. It furthermore fostered independence and companionship as well as reduced loneliness. To describe social participation that is perceived as meaningful from a theoretical perspective, we used Levasseur and colleagues' (2010) taxonomy and found that such involvement creates a sense of connectedness, a sense of belonging and relates to the concepts of social integration, social networking and social engagement. This type of involvement is associated with enhanced quality of life and a more meaningful life, highlighting the importance of creating environments where older adults can socially connect.