Group Living Homes Provide Good Care for Patients With Dementia

Despite residents' improved well-being, taking responsibility and providing care creates tension

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Group living homes for older people with dementia provide good care, and stimulate the values of attentiveness and responsiveness, but residents, family, and nursing staff may disagree on the phases of taking responsibility for care, and performing care-giving activities, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Ezra Van Zadelhoff, from the Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and colleagues investigated the experiences of residents, their family caregivers, and nursing staff in group living homes for older people with dementia, and their perception of the care process. The data were collected from two group living homes over a period of six-months through semi-structured interviews and observations made by participating in the daily life, care, and activities in both homes. Inductive analysis was performed on the data, which were related to Tronto's care ethical framework.

The investigators found that, according to the residents, caregivers, and nursing staff, group living homes attended to the residents' personal needs and created structural opportunities for individualized care. Increased responsiveness and attentiveness for residents' well-being was identified as a sign of good care and correlated with the phases of caring about and receiving care from Tronto's care ethical model. However, the phases of taking responsibility and performing care were associated with tension, as not all the residents and family members were willing or able to take responsibility and perform self-care.

"Values of attention to needs and responsiveness are of high importance for nursing staff to provide good care for people with dementia in a nursing home setting," the authors write.

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