INDEPENDENCE AND AUTONOMY OF ELDERS IN ASSISTED LIVING

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：本发明的主要目标是： 该项目旨在探索如何将独立性和自主性融入 ALF环境以尊重文化价值观、信仰和 所有居民的做法。本研究的具体目的是：1）获得 理解独立和自主是如何在社会上构建的， 在辅助生活环境中感知; 2）了解如何 个人，社会文化和环境因素影响的含义， 以及在辅助生活设施中独立和自主的机会; 3)确定居民、提供者和家庭成员的策略， 使居民能够在ALF环境中优化独立性和自主性; 4)了解个人、社会文化和环境 影响居民、提供者和家庭成员策略的因素， 支持ALF的独立性和自治性; 5）确定社会和 ALF中居民独立和自主的个人障碍;以及6） 确定妨碍居民独立的物理环境障碍， 在ALF中的自治。 在亚特兰大市区及周边地区的五个辅助生活设施的样本将 被选择来代表在大小、类型和位置上的最大变化， 设施和居民的种族和社会经济地位，包括：1）两个 为中高收入居民服务的城市集合住宅， 大约70名白人居民和一名大约50名非洲人居民 美国居民; 2）一个聚集在一个小镇上的家， 大约有36名非裔美国人和高加索居民， 低收入到中等收入;和3）两个家庭示范家园（4 - 6居民），一个在 一个是白人居住的农村地区，另一个是白人居住的小镇。 和非裔美国居民 将采用定性方法来识别和描述强度 日常经验、活动、决策、感知和正式 和非正式的互动，因为它们发生在辅助生活设施。的 数据收集的主要方法将是参与者观察、密集 访问居民、他们的家人和朋友，以及工作人员， 环境，以及审查居民和设施记录和营销 材料.将使用扎根理论方法分析数据。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from the Applicant's Abstract): The main goal of this project is to discover how independence and autonomy can be integrated into the ALF environment in ways that respect the cultural values, beliefs, and practices of all residents. The specific aims of this study are: 1) to gain understanding of how independence and autonomy are socially constructed and perceived in the assisted living environment; 2) to gain understanding of how individual, sociocultural, and environmental factors influence the meanings of, and opportunities for, independence and autonomy in assisted living facilities; 3) to identify strategies of residents, providers, and family members that enable residents to optimize independence and autonomy in the ALF environment; 4) to gain understanding of how individual, sociocultural, and environmental factors influence strategies of residents, providers, and family members to support independence and autonomy in ALFs; 5) to identify the social and individual barriers to residents' independence and autonomy in ALFs; and 6) to identify the physical environmental barriers to residents' independence and autonomy in ALFs. The sample of five assisted living facilities in and around metro Atlanta will be selected to represent maximum variation in size, type, and location of facility and ethnicity and socioeconomic status of residents to include: 1) two urban congregate homes serving moderate-to-high-income residents, one with around 70 mostly Caucasian residents and one with around 50 mostly African American residents; 2) one congregate home in a small-town setting with a mixture of approximately 36 African American and Caucasian residents with low-to-moderate incomes; and 3) two family model homes (4-6 residents), one in a rural area with Caucasian residents, and one in a small town with Caucasian and African American residents Qualitative methodology will be employed to identify and describe the intensity and range of daily experiences, activities, decisions, perceptions, and formal and informal interactions as they occur within assisted living facilities. The primary methods of data collection will be participant observation, intensive interviewing of residents, their families and friends, and staff, inventory of the environment, and review of resident and facility records and marketing materials. Data will be analyzed using the grounded theory method.