Older People
Autonomy and Social Status
Keywords:
older people, autonomy, social status, needs, nursing homeAbstract
When older people change their current living environment to be included in the institutional care, they are confronted with reduced social status and thus face the risks of modern society. Since the resulting vulnerability of their situation can be also promoted by the institution‘s operations, the author focused on the specific form of institutional care of older people, the residential care homes, i.e. nursing homes. In the modern society they were dominated by medical approaches and instrumental methods of work, extensively defining the lives of residents. Loss of autonomy and a decline in control over their own lives, lower self-esteem and social contacts, decreased ability to live independently and potentially rapid decline in intellectual abilities are often the result of a different habitat. Despite the social structure of current nursing homes, we note that some elements of instrumentalisation have been maintained, as ways of life of older people, roles and norms of behaviour are still defined by the rigid administrative approaches. Social support and networking within the overall structure of the institution may be reduced to a minimum in this segment, thus threatening the quality of life of older people. The author gave priority to the questions: Whether and, if so, to what extent the stay in an institution is truly favourable to the individual? Are
nursing homes helpless in meeting higher secondary needs of older people? Is it really in the interest of society to integrate older people into society, and what impact the institution have on this? Can these institutions with their functioning restore the social status the older people had in their active life period? The empirical data were obtained by a The study was based on a non-random (convenience) sample of older people in nursing homes, aged 65 to 90 years.
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