Family Needs in Special Nursing Home for the Dementia Elderly

Abstract

The service user capacity of special nursing homes has exhibited an increasing trend in recent years. Simultaneously, the number of individuals in need of care, especially among those for whom home-based care is difficult, such as persons with severe dementia, has also been increasing. As the family has various support needs at the time of admission to a facility, it is important to understand the family's wishes and link them to better facility service. This study aimed to clarify the family's wishes regarding the facility in which a family member with dementia is admitted. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 12 families. Analyses yielded 19 concept codes from the data obtained, and the three categories of “sharing the love of the admitted person with staff members,” “performing the responsibility as a family caregiver,” and “calmness in oneself, the surroundings, and between each other” were extracted. It is believed that families wish for staff members to consider the wishes of the admitted person to the same degree as those of the family, to provide motivational support underpinning the family's care and to provide care so that the admitted person spends his/her remaining years maintaining mental and bodily functions to the maximum possible extent.