Factors Influencing Family-Member Perception of “Homelikeness” in Long-Term Care Homes

ABSTRACT

Background: A number of long-term care homes in Nova Scotia, Canada, have been built or redesigned with new models of care with expanded care aide scope of practice and neighborhood-style layouts. Our objective was to examine what physical characteristics (bed size, owner-operator), model of care, and relational (family–staff relationship, perceived staff–resident relationship) factors were associated with increased family-member perception of homelikeness in long-term care homes.

Methods: We analyzed surveys collected from 273 family members from 23 long-term care homes in Nova Scotia, Canada. We conducted a multivariate linear regression to assess variables associated with increased family-member perception of homelikeness.

Results: We found that relationships between family and staff, perceived resident-to-resident relationships, and family involvement in decision making were positively associated with increased family perception of homelikeness. We found no significant associations between model of care or physical characteristics and increased family perception of homelikeness.

Conclusion: Relationships among family members, residents, and staff are integral to family members feeling at home in their loved one's long-term care home. Feeling at home in long-term care is largely related to family-member perception of meaningful social interactions between family and staff, and between residents.

KEYWORDS:

• Homelikeness
• long-term care
• family member
• relationships

Funding

This work was supported by a Partnerships for Health System Improvement Grant funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FRN number 114120) and the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation (Matching-2011-7173) and a Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation 2013 Scotia Support Grant (PSO-Research Programs-2013-9039).