Suchergebnisse

This case study reviews a mixed-methods, longitudinal study, which examines factors predicting job termination and the job experiences of home care aides. Home care aides are an essential component of our long-term care system, and as our population ages, we face an inadequate supply of these valuable direct-care workers. Increasing recruitment and retention of this workforce is essential to providing quality care to older adults with chronic disabilities who choose to "age-in-place"that is, at home in their communities. The study described herei?the Home Care Worker Retention Stud?utook place in Maine between 2008 and 2011. In the case study, I review the rationale for a longitudinal, mixed-methods design given the research questions and the state of the literature on this topic at the time of the study. I give particular attention to the start-up issues of obtaining human participants approval from the Institutional Review Board, constructing a survey instrument, and obtaining an adequate sample. The Home Care Worker Retention Study received funding from the National Institute on Aging through a mechanism that supports training students in health sciences research. Social work and nursing students were essential members of the research team, carrying out tasks in data collection and analysis. I underscore research practicalities such as securing quality data, retaining study participants in a longitudinal study, and completing qualitative data analysis with a team.

Learn the skills you need to work with geriatric populations in rural areas! Gerontological Social Work in Rural Towns and Communities provides a range of intervention and community skills aimed precisely at the needs of rural elders. This book fills a gap in the literature by focusing on the specific practice concerns for social workers assisting older adults in rural areas, including the aging experience, social worker skills, professional functions, working with special populations, and health and long-term care concerns.

Drawing on a sample of 929 recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) in the rural state of Maine, the study reported here examined the differences between families who had and had not experienced homelessness. The findings revealed few differ ences between the ever-homeless and the never-homeless groups, which indicates the importance of AFDC in preventing homelessness.

Using a phenomenological research approach, the author interviewed 11 unattached middle-aged homeless women every few weeks over a six-month period. Four themes emerged from the stories the women told about their lives: relationships, resiliency, normalcy, and political awareness. These themes support the idea that middle-aged homeless women are similar to other middle-aged women in this society, al though their poverty and the shortage of low-income housing have made their lives more difficult.