The purpose of this study was to explore the effect an intervention, based on responses from a Life Strengths Interview questionnaire (LSI), has on the quality of life of elderly persons receiving private pay home care. A total of 12 subjects for this study were recruited from Cardinal Health Systems (CHS) Home Care service. This research employed a basic pretest posttest quasiexperimental design, with one experimental group and one control group. Subject selection was not randomized; however, subjects were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. Subjects in the experimental group completed the LSI pre-test and subjects in both groups completed the Quality of Life Index (QLI) pre-test and post-test, as well as a posttest care questionnaire. Data from eight subjects were coded and entered into a database; however, due to the small sample size, statistical analysis of responses from the QLI could not be performed. The primary thematic issues identified through qualitative data analysis indicate that home health aide services positively contribute to client quality of life, and that private-pay clients of CHS Homecare are currently satisfied with their quality of care. Qualitative results gathered by this study support future research efforts to explore the relationship between home care services and client quality of life. More specifically, this study can serve as a pilot for researchers interested in exploring the effects of a LSI intervention on clients receiving home care. / Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1985. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1985. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record.

M.A. / New legislation regarding older persons in South Africa came into effect on 1 April 2010. Two areas of service delivery in this field were given special attention in the development of the current legislation. Protection for older persons is covered more extensively, with much better provisions having been made for professionals to deal promptly and effectively with the abuse of an older person. The prosecution of any person, who abuses an older person, is also provided for in the current legislation. Community-based care and support services for older persons represent a completely new area of local legislation. The current legislation provides for the creation of a supportive environment, within which a spectrum of well established and well managed services should enable older persons to exercise choice with regards to care options. The spirit of the current legislation fosters the possibility that older persons may receive maximum care, should such need arise, within their own homes. Community-based services for older persons must therefore be registered, and meet the standards set by the legislation, as expressed in Part 1 of the National Norms and Standards. Locally practicing social workers are thus tasked with new implementation and monitoring obligations, which are rather daunting. The goal of this study was to conceptualise, design and assemble a draft of guidelines that may assist social workers in daily implementation tasks, brought about by the new focus areas within the current legislation regarding older persons. A qualitative research approach was followed. The methodology was guided, in part, by the Analysis and Design phases from within the classic Design and Development model (Thomas, 1984) of developmental research. The analysis phase of the study included a document study and a thematic content analysis of the primary data. Themes and sub-themes of the legislative requirements, pertinent to the implementation by social workers, were identified, extracted and transformed by enhancements and explanations drawn from the literature and professional practice experience. Trustworthiness was obtained by constant checking against the primary data and a review by an expert and knowledgeable peers. The end result, the draft guidelines document, is a body of synthesised information that should be accessible and useful to social workers in daily implementation and monitoring practice.

The purpose of the study was to describe the relationship between in-home health care services for elderly patients who were recently discharged from inpatient care and re-hospitalization rates. The design was descriptive and the hypothesis was that the provision of in-home health care services would mitigate a decline in the health status, of an elderly patient, following discharge from inpatient care and prevent re-hospitalization.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

Before the main study commenced, empirical work was conducted to establish and validate the Chinese version of the Satisfaction with the Nursing Home Instrument (SNHI-C), which was an instrument used to measure resident satisfaction in the main study. Testing was conducted on a cluster sample of 330 residents from 16 elderly residential care homes in Hong Kong. Findings demonstrated that the SNHI-C had good content validity with an index of .93. It also demonstrated high construct validity by having significant correlation with depression (r = -.42, p < .001), the physical component of health-related quality of life (r = .16, p < .05), the mental component of health-related quality of life (r = .41, p < .001), and global quality of care (r = .49, p < .001). The SNHI-C also demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency and good stability by having a Cronbach's alpha of .79 and intra-class correlation coefficient of .94, respectively. / Current study adds new knowledge to the psychosocial health benefits of Tai Chi for the residents living in elderly residential care homes. Findings were discussed in relation to previous research findings and in the context of elderly residential care setting. The present study has the strength of evaluating the health benefit of Tai Chi using a more stringent research design, in comparing with the previous studies. Limitations of this study included the use of convenience sampling, without random assigning participants into groups, and inadequacy in quantifying Tai Chi learning. The implications of the findings support incorporating Tai Chi training in routine elderly residential care. Based on the study experience, recommendations for a successful implementation of a Tai Chi program were provided. Future research is advised to further explore the most beneficial mode of a Tai Chi program particularly for the elderly residential care home residents. Evaluation of its effect over a longer period of time and using various approaches are also suggested for obtaining a more comprehensive picture of the health benefit of Tai Chi. Finally, it is also worthwhile to investigate the experience of practicing Tai Chi through a qualitative approach to complement present findings. / Like many areas in the world, Hong Kong is facing an aging population. To accommodate the increasing elderly population, particularly those who are frail and have limited family support, elderly residential care homes are growing in size and number. Despite of the escalating demand, it has been documented repeatedly that the nature of residential living can predispose the residents to a number of psychosocial challenges. Study findings highlight consistently that residents are prone to experience lowered self-esteem, poor social support, and poor health-related quality of life. Providing psychosocial support to the residents is an important dimension in elderly residential care. It is because older residents, despite of their deteriorating physical functions that cannot be cured, can still have the potential to live with optimum psychosocial well-being. Even though a number of interventions have been considered in the past to address the residents' psychosocial needs, evaluation on the effectiveness of these interventions is inconclusive. There is still a paucity of evidence suggesting a promising intervention that can promote psychosocial health for the residents. Given the general consensus that exercise is beneficial for the psychosocial health, and considering that the characteristics of Tai Chi are particularly suitable for the elderly population, Tai Chi is considered as a possible means to promote psychosocial health for the residents. This study aimed to examine the psychosocial effects of a Tai Chi program on the residents of the elderly residential care homes. / The main study adopted a non-equivalent pretest-posttest control group design to examine the psychosocial effect of Tai Chi on residents of elderly residential care homes. Residents were recruited from six elderly residential care homes in Hong Kong by convenience sampling. The experimental group (n = 66) joined a 26-week Tai Chi program three times per week with each session lasted for one hour. The control group (n = 73) continued their daily activities as usual. Outcome variables encompassing state self-esteem, the physical component of health-related quality of life, the mental component of health-related quality of life, social support network, and social support satisfaction were assessed at baseline, the 13th and 26th week of the intervention period. Doubly multivariate analysis of covariance was performed to examine the effect of the Tai Chi program. / With the confounding effect of resident satisfaction controlled, findings demonstrated that participants in the experimental group experienced greater improvement in the psychological composite outcome of state self-esteem, the physical component of health-related quality of life, and the mental component of health-related quality of life (p < .05). No significant changes were detected in any of the three individual psychological outcome variables. Non-significant result was also found regarding the social effect of Tai Chi program on the participants. / Lee Yin King. / "May 2006." / Advisers: Diana Lee; Jean Woo. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-03, Section: B, page: 1558. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 249-269). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

As people age there is an overwhelming desire to remain in the familiar surroundings of the family home, what is called Aging in Place. But inevitable changes that occur in their lives force the aging adults and their families to consider a move to some form of institutional living. Living at a distance from one another, the adult child attempts to maintain peace of mind concerning the well-being of their aging parents but finds it to be a difficult task. I propose to address this problem by first proposing that technology can help minimize the anxieties experienced by the adult child concerning their aging parents well being by appropriately presenting information on the aging parents daily life. This technological design concept does not require that the aging parent input, or for that matter, do anything other than live their lives as they normally live them. Further, this technology provides this information in a manner that is continuously available to the adult child for either opportunistic or planned perusal. As a single instance of the technological design concept proposed above, the Digital Family Portrait embeds well-being related information into an item commonly found in homes, the picture in a picture frame. The Digital Family Portrait was first tested in a wizard-of-oz field trial, then redesigned based on the outcome of this initial field trial coupled with the results of two lab-based studies and a further informal evaluation. The redesigned Digital Family Portrait was built and installed in the home of an adult child while the sensors to drive it were installed in an aging parents home. A field trial of this installation lasting for one year was conducted. The result of this field trial was to find that the Digital Family Portrait was an acceptable means of resolving certain peace of mind issues for the adult child while not raising privacy. It was found to be used in a socially acceptable manner by the adult child while the aging parent to reported feeling less lonely.

Thesis (M.G.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Sociology and Gerontology, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-40).

This research investigated the coping strategies that elderly caregivers use when caring for a spouse with brain impairment, categorizing their strategies into an external or internal locus of control.