‘I like to feel needed, you know?’: a qualitative examination of sense of purpose in older care home residents

Abstract

Objectives

To explore older care home residents’ experiences of maintaining a sense of purpose in life: a core component of psychological wellbeing.

Methods

Fifteen residents (9 female; 6 male), aged 60-95 years, from four care homes, were interviewed about their sense of purpose. Interview transcripts were analysed using inductive thematic analysis.

Results

Theme 1 (‘Experiencing Loss’) comprises two sub-themes that describe the impact of age-related losses on residents’ sense of purpose (sub-theme 1) and the different responses that participants had to these losses (sub-theme 2). Theme 2 (‘The Protective Effects of Social Connections’) describes how social relationships could provide a sense of purpose, as well as the difficulties participants experienced in forming these relationships. Finally, theme 3 (‘The Roles of Activities’) describes the types of activities that could help residents to maintain a sense of purpose.

Conclusion

Care home residents experience losses and barriers that make it more difficult to maintain a sense of purpose. However, with appropriate support and opportunities, residents are able to engage in activities and relationships that provide a sense of purpose. To support residents’ mental health and wellbeing, care homes should offer varied opportunities for residents to engage in purposeful activities.

Keywords:

• Psychosocial
• wellbeing
• quality of life
• meaningful activity
• nursing home

Acknowledgements

We thanks all of the residents and staff who gave up their time to participate in, or support, this study

Dsiclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Data availability statement

The data that support this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.