Improving Quality of Life for Older People in Long-Stay Care ...

Self-respect gained throughacknowledgement of achievementsWe have a local artist and she has …helped with the art and I mean we’vepeople who never painted, and I’ve seenprogression you know from just a daubto actually beautiful paintings, you know.Int: I’ve seen some of them downon the wall.Yeah, yeah, and they’ve all been done byindividuals and it kind of increases theirself-worth as well, you know, and it’sinvolvement and we had an exhibition onceand it was so great because they were soproud of it really and they love to see themon the walls, and they bring their familiesto see them. (LC2 Director of Nursing O1,Private)Informal acknowledgement ofresident achievementsI like to get out there and do a bit ofgardening, and when I’m doing mygarden I sit down on a little stool, cosI’m not, well I am mobile alright, butem, my feet, like you know, at myage, eighty, I feel a bit of a cripple(laugh). … I love flowers and when Ido my garden, everybody tells me itslooks lovely. (PK3 Resident 02, Public)During the summer they’re taken outon little field trips and have parties.When their birthday comes up, theyhave a big party, their pictures aretaken, and they’re put up on thenoticeboard. (YW1 Care Assistant 04,Private)180Visiting study sites revealed distinct differences in attitudes to the contributionand achievements of residents. Some facilities made great efforts to acknowledgeresidents’ accomplishments. Staff had put their artwork on display or had put upphotographs of residents when on trips or at parties. Indeed, some residents in thephotographs had since died but there was a sense that they were remembered andthe other residents still talked about them. These facilities managed to generate anatmosphere that the older people living there were important, mattered and wererespected. Other facilities, while bright and cheerful, had bare walls or hung formalpictures instead of contemporaneous records of residents’ lives or achievements.There was a feeling of a hotel rather than a home – a sense that residents weretransitory. The essential difference was that some facilities managed to makeresidents feel valued and this was linked to a sense of feeling comfortableand at home.Improving Quality of Life for Older People in Long-Stay Care Settings in Ireland