Frail Chinese elderly in care and attention homes

: social conditions for satisfactory adjustment

Abstract

The present study is concerned with the adjustment state of the aged persons admitted into residential homes of care and attention service and the social conditions promoting their adjustment. Major aging theories were explored and it was found that people perceived aging process differently. Perhaps, there is a range of perspectives in which pessimism stands on one extreme while optimism stands on the other. With employment of psychosocial perspective, concepts and insights are solicited from the aging theories and relevant literature forming a network for a local survey. Local aged homes were selected by Cluster Sampling and their residents were interviewed. The results revealed that the elderly seemed to have a gain from the residential care service but still had adjustment problems due to aging. There was a minority indicating unsatisfactory adjustment. Quality of care-giving, activity and formation of social network were found to be able to promote adjustment. These results suggest a direction for effective service provision for psychosocial needs of aged residents.

Date of Award	24 Jun 1998
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Man Hung Raymond NGAN (Supervisor) & Paul Nicholas HAMID (Co-supervisor)