Caring for Older People: Loneliness

The delivery of dignity when caring for older people.

Everyone has a different understanding of what it means to have dignity, however, it is commonly associated with being in control and valued. The dignity of older people is therefore vulnerable as they are likely to be in positions of reduced control over their wellbeing. The six senses framework describes the characteristics of a health and social care environment which can promote dignity. Th...

'Stitched drawings' and caring for our older people.

Involving students in the challenges of caring for older people.

Students acquire nursing knowledge and values through occupational socialisation during varied work-based placements. Such experiences not only influence their career paths but, crucially, their orientation towards older people in practice. This paper draws on research exploring nursing students' experiences of working with older people during a pre-registration course. It aims to show how unde...

Suffering from Loneliness Indicates Significant Mortality Risk of Older People

Background. The harmful associates of suffering from loneliness are still in dispute. Objective. To examine the association of feelings of loneliness with all-cause mortality in a general aged population. Methods. A postal questionnaire was sent to randomly selected community-dwelling of elderly people (>74 years) from the Finnish National Population Register. The questionnaire included demogra...

Does owning a pet protect older people against loneliness?

BACKGROUND Pet ownership is thought to make a positive contribution to health, health behaviours and the general well-being of older people. More specifically pet ownership is often proposed as a solution to the problem of loneliness in later life and specific 'pet based' interventions have been developed to combat loneliness. However the evidence to support this relationship is slim and it is ...