This is more than a buzz word or phrase for a professional care manager. Providing the best possible care and living arrangements for the elderly or disabled is the mission of any Care Manager or Care Giver. Depending on the situation, the phrase "Quality of Life" can have a very different meanings to different people. A recent study conducted by researches at the San Francisco VA Medical indicates that for disabled elderly people, quality living is closely tied to two factors: a sense of dignity and a sense of control.
"Control" to elders means a sense of autonomy in their activities and daily living. Because of disability, not all of them are able do to all activities on their own, but they want to feel they have some say in how those activities progress throughout the day” said lead author Jennifer King, MD
The two factors were singled out as important by members of all ethnic groups in the study, which was based on a series of qualitative interviews with 62 disabled elders. The ethnic groups represented included white, African American, Latino and Chinese American.
When asked to rate the quality of their own lives on a five-point scale that ranged from “excellent” to “poor,” 87 percent of the elders responded “fair to very good,” which was in the middle of the scale.
No comments:
Post a Comment