Ulla Melin Emilsson
Researcher
Family members' strategies when their elderly relatives consider relocation to a residential home : Adapting, representing and avoiding
Author
Summary, in English
The aim of this article is to reveal how family members act, react and reason when their elderly relative considers relocation to a residential home. Since family members are usually involved in the logistics of their elderly relative's relocation, yet simultaneously expected not to influence the decision, the focus is on how family members experience participation in the relocation process in a Swedish context. 17 family members are included in 27 open, semi-structured interviews and follow-up contacts. Prominent features in the findings are firstly the family members' ambition to tone down their personal opinions, even though in their minds their personal preferences are clear, and secondly, the family members' ambivalence about continuity and change in their everyday lives. Family members are found to apply the adapting, the representing, or the avoiding strategy, indirectly also influencing their interaction with the care manager. Siblings applied the adapting strategy, spouses the representing strategy, while family members in the younger generation at times switched between the strategies.
Department/s
- School of Social Work
- Transport and Roads
Publishing year
2012
Language
English
Pages
495-503
Publication/Series
Journal of Aging Studies
Volume
26
Issue
4
Full text
- Available as PDF - 329 kB
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Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Keywords
- Older people
- Relocation
- Residential home
- Family member
- Decision-making
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0890-4065