Living in institutional care: residents' experiences and coping strategies.
Insights into daily living in residential care settings are rare. This article draws on a qualitative dataset (semi-structured interviews and recordings of residents' council meetings) that gives a glimpse of the experiences and coping strategies of (older) people living in residential care. The data highlight the range of unmet needs of the residents, similar to the categories of physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization needs in Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. Our analysis indicates that "higher" and "lower" needs are closely intertwined and mutually reinforcing and should therefore be accorded equal emphasis by professionals (including social workers) employed within residential care settings.
Social Policy and Ageing Research Centre (SPARC), School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. timonenv@tcd.ie
Virpi
V
Timonen
Ciara
C
O'Dwyer
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes; D012107:Research Design