Quality of Life in Long-Term Care

Quality of Life in Long-Term Care provides long-term care professionals and persons responsible for training staff at long-term care facilities with guidelines for developing a quality of life that enables elderly persons, even those physically or mentally challenged, to achieve life satisfaction and to live with dignity. Readers learn of concepts and methods for implementing change through staff training, a supportive management style, the development of appropriate activities, and the ongoing evaluation of outcomes.

While the focus of Quality of Life in Long-Term Care is on the psychosocial aspects of long-term care, Authors Dorothy Coons and Nancy Mace also recognize and emphasize the need for excellent medical care and a therapeutic physical environment. They give administrators very specific examples of ways to develop a quality of life that enables even the very impaired to live with dignity. In helping long-term care facility administrators and staff trainers, the authors show how to support staff development so the staff becomes friends and therapists, rather than simply caretakers. The training methods presented provide ways to help staff better understand and empathize with elderly residents. Readers will find that these effective staff training and management practices help to greatly reduce staff turnover.

Chapters in Quality of Life in Long-Term Care describe facilities which provide individuality, opportunities for choice, social stimulation, and continuity of lifestyle for elderly people who live in retirement homes, nursing homes, or special dementia units. These examples are from facilities which have brought about change despite limitations including financial problems, structural restrictions, and staffing problems. Other topics covered which help long-term care facility administration and staff provide a superior quality of life for their residents include:

• criteria for creating a health fostering and therapeutic environment in long-term care settings
• management styles and methods that help staff achieve success
• specific training topics and methods to help staff understand the needs of the elderly
• activities and opportunities that can enrich long-term care environments
• an instrument designed to measure quality of life
  
  Health care specialists; long-term care facility administrators; nurses; occupational, activity, and recreational therapists; designers and developers of special dementia units; policy planners in long-term care; and academicians in gerontology and long-term care will refer to Quality of Life in Long-Term Care repeatedly as they strive to provide residents with a good quality of life and a nurturing environment.