A total of 58 percent of elderly individuals receiving elderly care report experiencing loneliness, as indicated by the National Board of Health and Welfare's annual survey focused on this demographic. Regardless of the adverse effects of loneliness on health, addressing and acknowledging involuntary loneliness is crucial, given its potential to cause discomfort and diminish the wellbeing of the elderly. The objective of this study is to explore how aid officers, through conversations with the elderly, identify and address loneliness among this population. Additionally, the study aims to understand the actions aid workers take upon recognizing loneliness. The goal is to determine whether aid officers' perceptions of loneliness in the elderly are linked to various interventions provided by social services for this demographic. The research questions focus on how aid officers observe and address feelings of involuntary loneliness in the elderly, the nature of the needs assessment conducted by aid officers regarding these feelings, and the types of interventions offered to address loneliness among the elderly. The study adopts a qualitative approach, involving interviews with four aid officers from the Health Care and Care Administration. These aid officers are responsible for approving interventions, including social care for the elderly. The theoretical framework for interpreting the findings encompasses the activity theory and continuity theory. The results and analysis indicate that aid officers individually recognize and address loneliness in the elderly. However, they operate within common guidelines and templates, particularly in the context of social interventions where loneliness plays a role in the assessment for granting social interventions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-66744 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Gustafsson, Johanna |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för hälsa och samhälle (HS) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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