A sense of home in elderly care

Abstract

Zorgbedrijf Antwerpen provides care for elderly people. The organisation cooperated with Katrijn Van Loock, a professor at the Artesis-Plantijn (AP) University-College, to gain knowledge about what makes the residents feel at home. According to Katrijn, her and her colleague's research focusses on how and why some residents do succeed in feeling at home and others do not. From this research we can presume that elderly people can have difficulties to feel at home after transferring to a care facility. This problem is what the project ‘A sense of home’ is all about. The project groups’ task description will be to find out what motivates elderly people to communicate about the concept ‘A sense of home’, to discover what makes them feel at home and to research how seniors in care facilities and service centres interpret this concept. By using focus groups, individual interviews and also some informal contacts, the residents of Sint-Maria nursing home in Berchem will be involved in the design process, giving them a sense of responsibility as well as the staff in the facility. That way we can also motivate the communication between residents and staff. The results will be used to create a prototype of a mobile experience room. Next semester, a new group of EPS students will turn the final concept into reality. This tool will enable care facilities to deliver better support, focusing on improving the mental state of the residents.