Social Changes that Elderly People Undergo During Transition From Home to Nursing Home (Essay Sample)

Social Changes that elderly people undergo during transition from home to nursing home
Name
Institution
Abstract
Elderly people across the world have found it difficult to adjust to a new environment found in nursing homes especially after leaving the comfort of homes they have built for a while. Much as many of them may have reservations about it, it is plausible that having them in nursing homes is regarded to be the best way of factoring in their interests in the society and taking care of them. The transition from normal life at home to a place where they have a lot of company though away from family and some facilities they have had for a while is always a difficult process. The core essence of this paper is to conduct an in-depth analysis of the social factors surrounding the transition of ageing people from home to nursing homes; the difficulties they face and positives in this process.
Introduction
The elderly population around the world is slightly above 10% of the population of the whole world. A significant number of the elderly find themselves living alone because of a number of factors (O’Connell et al. 2010). To start with there is greater emigration among the youth and younger people who tend to leave the elderly behind. There are also decreased mortality rates and therefore elderly people tend to live longer than they used to. Major breakthroughs in the health sector and considerable social change among the young have also greatly facilitated many elderly people to find themselves alone.
Bearing these developments in mind there is always a necessity to keep old people in the society in a good and healthy condition and give them utmost care that they deserve. Thus, they are in most cases assigned to nursing homes; institutions for elder people who need care. The core objective of these facilities is not only to maintain life but also to maintain interest in life. It is imperative that elderly people and residents within nursing homes experience diverse social changes during that transition period from their homes to one centralized institution. For instance, they often lose their decision making autonomy to the nursing homes. Also, they are coerced by circumstances to keep distance from their family and this would greatly derail their psychological well-being. The major substratum of this paper is to examine the social changes that happen during transition from home to nursing home and the effect of these changes to the psychological disposition of an ageing person.
Method Section
The issue of social changes as they are witnessed in the lives of ageing members of the society especially once they have been admitted as residents in nursing homes was widely discussed by Kimondo. This research however narrowed down to specific social changes and their psychological impact on the elderly person.
Subject
The targets for this research were elderly people above the age of 65 years who have spent relatively a long time as residents in the nursing homes. The cognitive ability of the residents was also considered because it was only proper that a person who can remember well is able to draw a distinction between the life at home and at the nursing home. Therefore the research settled on a 76 year old female resident of a nursing home who still had her memory intact. She had spent 11 years in the nursing home.
Ethical Considerations
Considering the fact that the nature of information sought from the subject was personal and confidential, there was need to assure her that we would maintain utmost confidentiality and that she was free to answer all the questions howsoever to the best of her knowledge. Also, the interviewer was cautious not to ask the most private of questions which were more sensitive so as not to elicit emotions and feelings from the subject. Participation in this interview was also exclusively voluntary.
Preparation
The preliminary stages of this research had the participant prepared mentally with respect to the task ahead. She was first warned about the nature of the information which they would be required to give; that it would be personal and at this point they were given an option to quit the experiment if they wished to. After she agreed to proceed with the experiment she was beseeched to provide honest and accurate information which would ensure the accuracy of any inferences that would be derived from the whole study.
Protocol Design
This was just a normal interview held in a serene environment within the compound of the nursing home. I took into account the feelings of the participant because I was sensitive all through the interview. Also, I presumed that the subject was not under depression because this would actually compromise her perceptions and thus influence the answers she gave (Wisco, 2009).
Findings
From the interview conducted, it is apparent that the subject, since she had had a family was always reluctant to move to the nursing home. It was hard for her to adopt in her new home and adjust to the new environment. In fact, she expressed how she cried and felt bad because she missed her home, garden, naughty cat and comfort corner in the room. She did not even like the room assigned to her in the nursing home simply because the setting in the room was not similar to how her former room had been designed and arranged. It took her around a month to adjust to life at the nursing home.
The subject did not come to the nursing home on her own volition. It was the government’s idea that since she had served in public service for over 25 years, she had to move to a nursing home. Her children also backed up this idea because they reasoned that since by staying at home she would have no one to take care of her, it would be better if she were a resident at the nursing home. At first she was reluctant to accede to this request because she would lose all the memories she had had with her husband and children but after she was promised to have her most valuable things in her room, she agreed to this proposal.
In the end, she admitted that she finally loved the place until now. This is because the management organizes numerous events for them. Also, at the nursing home she met two of her best friends now who make her feel even better. Another fact that really fascinates her is that they are well taken care of. They are given good food, timely medication and autonomy to make important decisions like which dress to wear. The only thing that she decries is that her two sons are not able to visit her every month.
Discussion
From the interview with our subject, there are a number of social changes associated with moving away from home to become a resident in a nursing home. An elderly person bears with a lot of new experiences during this transition period. The first hurdle that the elderly have to deal with once they are in the nursing home is diminished autonomy in making simple yet important decisions in their lives (Anderberg et al; 2009). This lack of autonomy could as well result in aged people feeling depressed and that they are not valued. Autonomy is essential because it entails a person having the liberty to make basic decisions on their own, exhibiting their self-determining right, and general independence. In as much as the subject insisted that they are given their independence, it is questionable to what limits the autonomy extends. Also, such a practice may not be prevalent in many other nursing homes which are less professional. A study conducted by Choi et al. indicated that residents opined that various restrictions associated with institutional life are the major factors affecting their psychological well-being and not illnesses and disabilities.
Residents of nursing homes also have little environmental mastery. This implies that they cannot control the external activities and a context which fits their personal needs. The inability to control whatever happens in their environm...