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Families and nursing home placements: A cross-cultural study

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Abstract

With the aging of many populations, health careworkers and families increasingly findthemselves jointly involved in situationsinvolving decisions about nursing homeplacements. How each approaches suchsituations is affected by beliefs andassumptions about the role of family members inthe care of family members and the decisionmaking process. This paper explores theresponses of people from four cultural groupsliving in Australia (Anglo-Celtic Australian,Chinese, Greek, Lebanese) to a criticalincident scenario about a Russian family inAustralia faced with such a decision. Theresponses to this scenario were remarkablysimilar across the four cultural groups. Allsaw making such a decision as difficult, butthe reasons for the difficulty suggest someinteresting cross-cultural distinctions. Somegroups viewed care of a family member more interms of a social and role obligation whileothers addressed it as a personalresponsibility. To not care for elderlyparents in the home was accompanied by a senseof guilt among some respondents and a sense ofpublic social shame among others. Ambivalenceabout nursing homes and placing a family memberin a nursing home, culture change andcross-generational differences, and roles androle support were other important themes. Theresults are consistent with other data analysedin conjunction with the InterculturalInteraction Project. The findings from thisresearch suggests a need to examine moreclosely the beliefs and assumptions associatedwith nursing home placements and one way tohelp students and health professionals to doso.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Occupation and Leisure Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Maureen H. Fitzgerald, Colleen Mullavey-O'Byrne & Lindy Clemson

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  1. Maureen H. Fitzgerald
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  2. Colleen Mullavey-O'Byrne
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  3. Lindy Clemson
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Fitzgerald, M.H., Mullavey-O'Byrne, C. & Clemson, L. Families and nursing home placements: A cross-cultural study. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 16, 333–351 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014505219291

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