Maintaining Cultura1 and Personal Continuity in a Danish Nursing Home

Abstract

This article makes a contribution to the continuity theory of aging. It focuses on the disjunction between the therapeuhcally structured environment of a suburban Copenhagen nursing home, and the attempts of some of its elderly women residents to maintain cultural and personal continuity after institutionalization. I illustrate the ways in which the organizational structure of this nursing home did not build upon earlier life patterns, and construct an argument for developing culturally appropriate services for the elderly, whether Danes or Americans, from ethnically diverse backgrounds. My findings suggest that the existence of institutionalized elderly can be enhanced by stucturing physical space and social opportunities in ways which facilitate cultural connections between pre- and post-institutionalization lives.