COMMUNITY BUILDING IN LONG-TERM CARE (HOLISTIC HEALTH CARE, NURSING HOMES).
Contributors: Union Institute (U.S.)
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 222
Subjects: Psychology, General.; Health Sciences, Public Health.; Health Sciences, Mental Health.; Gerontology.
Description: This research is a case study of a program intervention in Holistic Health Care. The goal of this program was to create a therapeutic community in a nursing home, that would meet the Holistic Health needs of the residents. Holistic Health, as it is used here, is defined as a harmonious balance of the needs of the body, mind, and spirit. The purpose of this research project was to find ways to enhance the ability of all nursing home residents to enjoy their legal right to live in an environment which promotes and protects their highest level of physical, mental, psychosocial, and spiritual well being. These rights are now established under the nursing home reform laws known as OBRA (Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987).

Throughout the project, detailed ethnographic records were kept of all contacts among the residents, program staff, and the researcher. The ongoing analysis of these records refined the intervention process. A major operating premise guiding the focus of the interventions was that the institutionalized elderly need to live in an environment that meets their need for love, support, and community. Additionally, given the constant presence of death and disability, these people need the opportunity to explore their beliefs about the transcendent or mysterious aspects of life and death.

During the program development the researcher operated as a teacher, consultant, and group therapist, to help create a therapeutic milieu for staff and residents. Increased self disclosure, problem solving activities, and the use of touch, helped to produce one example of a caring community that could make ageing a more healthy experience for both the elderly and those that serve them. The next challenge, is to explore ways in which the models used here, can be successfully implemented in a range of nursing home environments.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: B, page: 6092.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNION INSTITUTE, 1990.

School code: 1033.