Participation in Older Home Care Recipients: A Value-Based Process

Abstract

This article aims to increase the understanding of participation when aging in place. The qualitative interviews of 10 cognitively healthy Norwegian home care recipients (72–89 years) illuminate how they describe participation in everyday life. The core category identified was “keeping up dignity and pride,” representing a value-based process of fending for oneself, including accepting and acting on changing capacity, and concentrating on being an agent in everyday life. Additionally, the two categories “getting oneself going” and “keeping one's place: at home, in the neighborhood, and in family” included the older adults' descriptions and understanding of participation in their everyday lives. In order to promote participation, the professionals in home care services must recognize and give attention to the older adults' variety of participatory strategies in everyday life.

Keywords:

• participation
• older adults
• home care services
• grounded theory

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the older adults for willingly sharing their time and experiences with us, the Norwegian Research Council for financial support for this study, and the priority program “Participation” at Sør-Trøndelag University College for both professional and technical support.