Older people's experiences involving the decision to transition to an aged care home

Abstract

The decision to relocate to an aged care home can is important change in older adults live but little attention has been paid to their experiences of this decision. The study explored older people's experiences involving the decision to transition to an aged care home. Data were obtained via semi-structured interviews with 17 participants, which were content analyzed. Results: Transition motives, ambiguity, participation in decision making and decision making meaning were four themes extracted through data analysis. Conclusions: In the main, the decision to transition to an aged care home had been made without the older person's participation. In addition, due to inadequate information about aged care home services, participants experienced a great deal of ambiguity in the decision-making process. Moreover, transition into aged care homes had different meaning for the participants. The findings suggest that far greater emphasis must be placed on having older people involved in the decision to move into residential aged care, providing them with more information about service offerings and making psychological support accessible to them prior to and following transition to the home.