The Twilight Study: Using narrative research to explore the lives of elderly care home residents

Problem

There are currently approximately 405,000 older people living in care homes in the UK and the proportion is rising as the population ages. Although the reasons for moving to a care home vary from individual to individual, and usually multifactorial, most people make the transition because they are unable to live independently. Care home residents are more likely to die in their usual place of residence than their counterparts who live in their own homes. The majority of elderly people would like the opportunity to discuss end-of-life care, though this is only happening as a reality for a minority. The current model of palliative care does not cater well for the oldest old, who are frail, with multi-morbidity.

This study aims to explore the issues facing elderly care home residents in this last phase of life.

Approach

Five participants were recruited from local care homes. A narrative approach was adopted for data collection and analysis, utilising the data to construct a view of the participant and their experience that encompasses both the illness and their surrounding life events. The data is presented in both in the usual academic format and also in the form of a series of engaging illustrations. The aim of this is to widen the potential audience for the results and make them more meaningful to non-academics.

Findings

Data analysis in progress.

Consequences

Improving end-of-life care for elderly care home residents is an important area and one which will become more pertinent as the population ages. Most work in this area comes from a healthcare agenda and does not take into account the needs and wishes of the people themselves. This work aims to raise the profile of this group and encourage wider discussion and further work in this subject area.