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

3.7 Conclusion78While the literature on quality of life is complex, several areas of agreement havebeen highlighted in this chapter. It is now clear that quality of life is a multidimensionalconcept, which cannot be explained only in medical terms. Quality of life onlymakes sense if presented in a holistic context. Quality of life also contains bothsubjective and objective elements, therefore there is a need to take account ofboth when measuring the concept. Specifically, the views of older people need tobe incorporated into any measure of quality of life. This is so even for people withdementia and related cognitive impairments. There is also an emerging consensuson quality of life domains for older people. These include objective domains such asthe physical and care environment, physical and mental health, level of functioningand socioeconomic status; and subjective domains such as psychological well-being,autonomy and independence, purposeful activity, social relationships, spiritualityand identity/sense of self. The emergence of these domains confirms the complex,interrelated and multidimensional nature of quality of life for older people.Notwithstanding these points of agreement, much debate and division stillsurrounds the concept of quality of life and a definitive framework for its definitionand measurement has yet to be agreed.Improving Quality of Life for Older People in Long-Stay Care Settings in Ireland