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

it feel more like visiting somebody in their home. In other facilities, household staffchecked if visitors would like a cup of tea. However, in the large public facilities theonly option was to visit in the open ward. Visiting in these facilities was reminiscentof visiting in a general hospital – visitors gathered around the resident’s bed or in acorner of the day room and all interaction was in the public domain. A phenomenonwithin these facilities was the ‘generic’ visitor. Generic visitors visited everybodyin the room and not just their own relative or friend. Residents who had few or novisitors benefited, as a ‘generic’ visitor ensured that they had a chat with somebody.All facilities had an open visitor policy but some were more tolerant than others ofpeople visiting with young children or pets.As indicated above, some resident respondents rarely had visitors. Of this group,some respondents stated they had nobody left ‘belonging to them’. Some acceptedthis as a feature of ageing, others a sign that they had lived too long. For others,families lived too far away to visit often with many respondents having sons anddaughters who lived overseas. A small cohort of resident respondents had novisitors because they were placed in facilities at some distance from their home.It was, therefore, more difficult for their relatives and friends to visit. They missedtheir friends and family acutely and wished they could move nearer home. Geographicaldistance was not the only factor. Poor or awkward transport was also a feature inlimiting visits. It was likely that friends who visited were older themselves and adifficult journey made it unlikely that they would be able to visit often.195On a positive note, the advent of the mobile phone has made a tremendous differencein enabling resident respondents to keep in touch with loved ones. Many of therespondents had mobile phones and they were in constant touch with their familyand friends. Having a phone also gave them independence in that they couldcontact their friends or family whenever they wanted rather than relying on staffto bring them the telephone.Facilities varied in the degree of their links with the local community. Some facilitieshad forged strong links and either individual volunteers or groups of volunteersvisited regularly. Resident respondents enjoyed these visits and felt special ifsomebody came to visit only them. Other facilities did not have well-establishedlinks and visits were either sporadic or non-existent. In addition, some facilitiesworked with local schools and invited transition year students to read to residentsor play scrabble with them. Facilities differed in how they structured these visits.