Dr. John Huth

Improving the Quality of Life for Residents of Long-Term Care Facilities

Approximately 33 years ago, Dr. Jaber Gubrium (now a Professor of Sociology at the University of Missouri) spent several months as a participant-observer in the “Murray Manor” (a pseudonym) nursing home and published his observations in a book entitled “Living and Dying at Murray Manor.”

Surprisingly, many of his observations that senior citizens just sit around with nothing to do)for most of the day are just as relevant today as they were then.  The advent of TV has done little to improve the situation, and if anything contacts between nursing home residents and relatives and/or young people have decreased.  Everyone seems to have become too busy for such niceties.

And yet young people and senior citizens are natural allies, as William H. Thomas, MD, point out in his book, “What are Old People For? How Elders Will Save the World.” Each group is, of necessity, searching for a new lifestyle and each group has something to offer the other.

Fortunately, however, modern technology, such as tablet computers and the Internet, offers real hope for remedying the situation.  And while capitalizing on this fact, we do not intend to ignore the inner strengths of those individuals who successfully transition from their former life styles of freedom and self-responsibility to life in an institution where freedoms are curtailed in exchange for transferring responsibilities to others. 

Our approach will rely heavily on Dr. Gubrium’s work on techniques of interviewing (“Handbook of Interview Research; Context and Method”), although we do not intend to follow his approach slavishly.  Our goal is somewhat different from his in that we intend to distill the elements of successful transitions such that they may be used to assist later arrivals as they attempt to adjust to Institutional life. 

In addition, we expect to be assisted by Humanities honor students from Wootton High School.

Why Do Some Residents of Nursing Homes Adapt to Life in a Cocoon While Others Never Do?

That's a fundamental question. We want to build a database of recorded interviews of residents. Each resident will be asked to discuss three periods of their life:

their life prior to moving to a long-term care facility;

anecdotes from their first day in their new home, and

problems still extant a year later.

Hopefully, scholars will then be able to identify root causes of long-term problems and devise entrance protocols to avoid them.

Our progress will be reported on this blog, and we welcome any comments or personel experiences.