Care homes: the developing ideology of a homelike place to live.

Fleming, Anne; Kydd, Angela; Stewart, Sally

Abstract

This paper reports on part of a doctoral study which explored stakeholder perceptions of the importance of a homelike environment in a care home and which factors contributed to this. The changes in institutional care for older people have evolved from being a ‘warehouse’ type of environment for those too poor, too mad, too sick and too unloved, to a place where older people in need of care can spend their days in safety, in a ‘homely’ environment. Such an environment is one of the quality indicators of care home provision. Yet defining what ‘homeliness’ means is fraught with difficulties. This article presents a narrative literature review on the concept of ‘home’ and the common measures taken to address homeliness in a care home setting. The results show that although the word ‘homely’ is used with the presumption of a shared understanding, the concept is elusive and highly subjective. Given that long-term care now provides homes for an increasingly wide range of age groups and individuals with increasingly diverse backgrounds and personal histories, is a shared viewpoint on homeliness possible? Indeed, is it ever possible to make an institution homely?

Citation

FLEMING, A., KYDD, A. and STEWART, S. 2017. Care homes: the developing ideology of a homelike place to live. Maturitas [online], 99, pages 92-97. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2017.02.013

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 22, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Feb 27, 2017
• Publication Date: May 31, 2017
• Deposit Date: Feb 26, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 28, 2020
• Journal: Maturitas
• Print ISSN: 0378-5122
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-4111
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 99
• Pages: 92-97
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2017.02.013
• Keywords: Care homes; Homeliness; Elderly
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/865856