The forgotten stakeholders: seniors' values concerning their health care.
Within the context of health care reform and its evaluation, a major gap exists in relation to our understanding of the values which seniors hold regarding their health care. This paper reports on a modified participatory, ethnographic study of such values, using transcribed interviews with ten seniors from across Canada. Members of the National Advisory Council of Canada, most of whom are themselves seniors, participated in designing the study, carrying out the interviews and interpreting the results. Clusters of values were identified concerning health care services, service providers and the overall health care system. While the numbers involved in this study preclude generalizing to the population, a number of recommendations emerged from the study which could impact on future research and begin to influence health policy at local and national levels.
Gallagher
E M
EM
School of Nursing, University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
Hodge
G
G
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002170:Canada; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000592:standards*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012945:Social Values