Privacy Needs When Visiting a Person With Alzheimer’s Disease: Family and Staff Expectations

Over the past decade, environmental psychologists and architects have combined efforts to create living environments that respond to the needs of persons with Alzheimer’s disease. Although they have defined privacy as a significant topic, we know little about the importance of physical privacy for family visitors to long-term care facilities. This exploratory study addressed this topic through in-depth interviews with 22 family and 26 staff members of 15 long-term care facilities. Thematic analysis indicates that families attempt to achieve privacy by personalizing their relative’s living space and by maintaining territorial control over personal objects. Both families and staff members must adapt to behaviors of persons with dementia that do not meet cultural norms. The most popular places for visiting were public and semipublic spaces, even when private areas were available. Implications for researchers, facility designers, and operators are presented.

The social lives of rural Australian nursing home residents

Contact with family and friends, in the form of visiting, is very important to the quality of the lives of rural nursing home residents. However, there has been little recent research that examines the frequency and determinants of visits to rural nursing homes and none in the rural Australian context. This study aimed to address this gap in the literature. A telephone survey with a close family member (N=257) of each participating resident in the rural New England area of New South Wales, Australia gathered data about 3,738 people who formed the potential social networks of these residents. This study found that the wider, potential, social networks of rural nursing home residents comprised approximately 17 people and involved a wide range of family and friends. However, their actual social networks consisted of approximately two females, daughters and friends, who had high-quality relationships with the resident and who visited at least once per month. In contrast to previous assertions that nursing home residents have robust support from their family and friends, the actual social networks of these residents have dwindled considerably over recent years, which may place them at risk of social isolation. This study has implications for nursing home policy and practice and recommendations for addressing the risk of social isolation that rural nursing home residents face are made.

Factors related to family visits to nursing home residents in Japan

This study examined factors related to the frequency and duration of family visits to elderly residents of nursing homes in Japan. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from 299 family members of residents of three nursing homes in Tokyo. Almost all family members visited residents more than once a month, and more than three quarters stayed for more than 1h during each visit. These findings confirm that family involvement with the elderly is maintained even after admission to a nursing home. Multiple regression analysis revealed the variables related to a higher frequency and duration of visits. Some factors related to frequent or long visits such as the requirement of higher care or the ability to remember family visits were similar to the findings of other studies conducted in western countries, yet the results need to be understood in a Japanese cultural context. Other factors such as the gender of the visitors, distance to the nursing home, and sentiment about placement were thought to be related to the unique cultural norms of family caregiving in Japan. These findings will be useful for developing effective methods to assist nursing home residents and their families in Japan.

Long-term care for older adults. The role of the family

Family members are involved in all aspects of a frail or ill older adult's care before, during, and after admission into a long-term care facility. However, their role within the facility is not always clearly defined. This article addresses issues regarding facility policies and staff attitudes toward family involvement, particularly whether the family member is seen as an integral part of the care system or peripheral to the care system. An emphasis is placed on the use of open communication to prevent misunderstandings and disagreements between staff and family and to promote good quality care and acceptable quality of life for the resident.