Daily Hardships of Older People Who Continue Living Alone, Requiring Long-term Care, and How They Cope with Their Situation

Abstract

  The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of individuals aged 75 or more (hereinafter termed ‘older people’) who require long-term care and live alone: what do they regard as hardships in everyday living as their activities of daily living (ADL) declines, and how do they try to cope with the hardships? The subjects are three older people at Care Level 2-4 who are using home-visit nursing care. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted, after which the data was analyzed qualitatively and descriptively.

  There were four hardships that the three older people experienced. Three of them were attributed to their deterioration of physical activities: these were the states that they are unable to act, unable to control their health condition, and unable to find the meaning of life. The fourth hardship could be seen in the complicated relationships with care providers. Owing to differences of opinion, older people could not always be content with the service.

  For the solutions to these hardships, although many of the ways they coped with these hardships included simply giving up or enduring them, there were cases where older people tried to adjust their activities to fit within the range of their capability in a search for better conditions. However, it could also be recognized that older people impose an enormous burden on their own body.