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The social lives of rural Australian nursing home residents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2011

GLENDA PARMENTER ,
MARY CRUICKSHANK  and
RAFAT HUSSAIN
GLENDA PARMENTER*
Affiliation:
School of Health, University of New England, Australia.
MARY CRUICKSHANK
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health, University of Canberra, Australia.
RAFAT HUSSAIN
Affiliation:
School of Rural Medicine, University of New England, Australia.
*
Address for correspondence: Glenda Parmenter, School of Health, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, 2351, Australia. E-mail: gparment@une.edu.au
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Abstract

Contact with family and friends, in the form of visiting, is very important to the quality of the lives of rural nursing home residents. However, there has been little recent research that examines the frequency and determinants of visits to rural nursing homes and none in the rural Australian context. This study aimed to address this gap in the literature. A telephone survey with a close family member (N=257) of each participating resident in the rural New England area of New South Wales, Australia gathered data about 3,738 people who formed the potential social networks of these residents. This study found that the wider, potential, social networks of rural nursing home residents comprised approximately 17 people and involved a wide range of family and friends. However, their actual social networks consisted of approximately two females, daughters and friends, who had high-quality relationships with the resident and who visited at least once per month. In contrast to previous assertions that nursing home residents have robust support from their family and friends, the actual social networks of these residents have dwindled considerably over recent years, which may place them at risk of social isolation. This study has implications for nursing home policy and practice and recommendations for addressing the risk of social isolation that rural nursing home residents face are made.

Keywords

aged carenursing homeruralsocial networkvisitingfamily
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , February 2012 , pp. 329 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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