Any of us with loved ones in aged care hopes they’re living their best life – and now a new study has given a snapshot of what a day usually looks like for residents.
Published in the journal PLOS One, the study followed 39 residents at six Australian aged care homes for 312 hours to observe their daily activities.
It found that residents spend the most time – 45 per cent – in their own rooms; were alone 47.9 per cent of the time and inactive 25.6 per cent of the time; usually chat in their rooms or common areas outside of meal times; and are most likely to talk to other residents, then staff, then family.
Most social interactions happen at meal times, but overall, residents spend more than a third of their time with other residents, which helps boost their quality of life.
Writing in The Conversation, authors Joyce Siette of Western Sydney University and Laura Dodds of Macquarie University said they wanted to find out about residents’ levels of social engagement and what it meant for their wellbeing.
“Previous research has found residents hardly attend activities in their facility. The conversations they do have are often with care staff – these are very rare, short, and mainly about their physical care.
“However, previous studies often fail to capture critical aspects of how and where socialisation occurs in aged care. We know humans are social creatures and that we’re wired to connect, with more social connections boosting our overall wellbeing,” they said.
Looks like it’s always important to make new friends – no matter how old you are.
