Senelių globos įstaigų gyvenimo sąlygų vertinimas ir jų gerinimo kryptys ; Evaluation and the ways of improvement of living conditions in elderly homes

Abstract

Due to aging population it is more and more spoken about development of social services for elderly people. Development of community social services is the priority of Lithuanian politics. However, the amount of elderly people who use institutionalized social services is still growing. Improvement of social care services is one of the priorities indicated by European Commission. However, there are no research results that would show what the quality of given social services is. Ministry of Social Security and Labour has confirmed the social care standards. These standards include appointment of services, meeting person's needs, etc. The standards are pretty extensive and include many ways of evaluation of social care services. It was chosen to evaluate the living conditions in elderly homes. The purpose of this master dissertation is to evaluate the ways of improvement of living conditions in elderly homes. To reach this purpose the preconditions of elderly home residents' activity stimulation were analysed, as well as aging processes that are important choosing the ways of improvement of living conditions. Also the ways of improvement the qualities of habitation and resources in the surroundings were analysed. Finally, the evaluation of living conditions of the residents, their family members and the personnel were explored. The quantitative research was accomplished. There was chosen the questionnaires method for this survey. The objective respondent sample was implemented for the residents of the elderly home, the systemic probability sample – for the personnel and accessible element sample for the family members. There were 90 questionnaires analysed. There are some ways of residents' activity stimulation indicated in the academic literature. These are the stimulation of communication between the residents, as well as between the residents and their families, assurance of private life, leisure organization, etc. The research results show that residents' private life is assured and their self – dependence is stimulated. The residents take part in most of the organized leisure programmes. They also have an opportunity to get in touch with their families at any time. However, there is lack of collaboration between the personnel of the elderly home and the residents' family members. The family members are poorly stimulated to take part in the improvement of living conditions for the residents. Also residents' initiative is poorly stimulated. Also the ways of improvement the qualities of habitation and resources in the surroundings are pointed out in the academic literature (create a cosy surrounding of the elderly home, make it close to home conditions, etc.). According to the research results the surrounding of the elderly home is sufficiently adapted to the residents' needs, but it is not close enough to home conditions. The residents can also use the transport services and keep in touch with the neighbour community. On the whole, the residents, personnel and residents' family members evaluated the elderly home's living conditions quit high. However, the residents' evaluation was lower than the rest of the respondents. The research showed that all the respondents link the notion of improvement of living conditions with improvement of physical surroundings and facility. The few respondents indicated the ways of improving living conditions that are related with the improvement of relationship between the residents and their families.