Opinion of elderly people regarding their stay in a retirement home
Keywords:
Aged, Emotions, Homes for the agedAbstract
Introduction: Conditions of advanced-age people living in a retire- ment home are of huge social interest. Some families do not understand that the capabilities of those have changed; so that, they either isolated them or take them in retirement homes, where, some times, their opinions are not taken in consideration, being violated their rights and provoking feelings of low self steam. Aging is the natural phase of life that demands knowledge of necessities of this population.
Objective: To identify the opinion of elderly people regarding their stay in a retirement home.
Methodology: An opinion survey was applied to 26 elderly people. An instrument was constructed to explore the following variables: comfortable stay, feelings of sadness, fear of loneliness, planned activities in the retirement home, and exclusion of family activities.
Results: 71% manifested comfortable stay; 40% feelings of sad- ness; 32% fear of loneliness, 67% disagreement with the plan- ned activities in the retirement home, and 69% exclusion of family activities.
Conclusion: Neither the family nor the staff of retirement homes who take care of elderly population are well trained to face the functional changes in this sort of people. It is necessary the participation of nurses on training programs for staff, and family education to affront this situation to encourage the res- ponsible contribution in order to deli- ver a respectful liaison, and incorporate them, as much as possible, to the fami- ly and social dynamic.
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