| Abstract [eng] |
Relevance of the research. As societies age, the number of elderly people is growing rapidly, and in this period, there are especially many of them in the world (Acienė and Mačiulskytė, 2021). This poses ever-new challenges to all communities in the world and influences the development of research at the national and international levels (Bjerregaard et al. 2018; Acienė and Mačiulskytė, 2021). Due to the need for services for the elderly in the last decade, one of the fastest growing sectors in Europe and Lithuania is the long-term care sector (Naujanienė et al., 2016; Matonytė et al., 2019; Green Paper, 2021). According to official statistics and forecasts, long-term care in 2016 was needed by 19.5 million Europeans. This need is projected to increase from 23.6 million in 2030 to 30.5 million in 2050 (Green Paper, 2021). In Lithuania, the number of elderly people living in nursing homes is also increasing every year, and the largest age group for which long-term social care services are provided are persons aged 85 and over (Charenkova, 2020). Social services in nursing homes are the realization of care and social justice in society in relation to the elderly. Although care is a fundamental concept in social work, research has examined it more broadly only in the context of the ethics of care (Gilligan, 1982; Noddings, 2003; Bubeck, 2004; Held 2006; Slote, 2007; Bikauskaitė, 2013). Observing the popularity of care ethics ideas in areas of applied ethics such as health care, nursing, shows the importance of the concept of care and the need to address care in the areas of social work to assess not only its semantic but also its social and philosophical richness, especially in caring for the elderly. Therefore, in order to take better care of the elderly by organizing the provision of social services to them in a nursing home, it is necessary to understand the content of the care experienced by the elderly person in the nursing home, and what care is relevant to the elderly person in the nursing home. To examine these issues from the perspective of an old man. There is a lack of such approach and understanding in the scientific and practical environment of social work. The object of the research is the experience of care in old age as a subjective state and the structure that defines it. The aim of the research is to reveal and describe the phenomenological structure of care based on the experience of an elderly person in a nursing home. Objectives of the research: 1. To theoretically conceptualize the phenomenon of old age and care. 2. To identify the phenomenological categories describing the experience in old age and their relevance in social work. 3. To reveal the structure of the phenomenon of care in old age and its phenomenological definition. 4. To update the emerging phenomenological findings in the context of theoretical concepts. 5. To single out the conceptual results of the research in the prepared conclusions. Methodology of the research. In May-September 2020, a qualitative phenomenological research was carried out using the method of scientific data collection - a semi-structured interview with the residents of the nursing home who have lived in the nursing home for 2-4 years. The material collected in the qualitative research was analysed with a break, in December 2020 - March 2022. The research data were analysed by Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Structure of the final thesis. The first part analyses the phenomenon of aging, its complexity from different theoretical perspectives because there is no single theory that integrates different knowledge and approaches. Different scientific theories agree that an authentic human relationship with the environment, which human consciousness helps to create and sustain, is critical to successful aging. The content of the latter is revealed by the phenomenological categories, the relevance of which in social work is explained by the philosophy of existentialism. Care arises as a category of meaningful human relationship with the world, which helps to understand the process of the formation of the meaning of human presence in the world. The second part is intended to present the methodological provisions of the qualitative phenomenological research, the methodology of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, the organization, course and ethics of the research; interpretation of the research data. The third part presents the analysis of individual cases of the experience of an old person in a nursing home performed by the method of interpretive phenomenology, and the results of this research. Conclusions. The phenomenon of care is a subjective and variable-intensity state, the structure of which consists of the following parts: care for coexistence has revealed the importance of interpersonal relationships with children, loved ones, and community in a nursing home. Care for the meaningfulness of death has revealed the importance of pastoral-type intervention and spiritual help as a special way of communication for the perception of embodied temporality in old age. Care for authentic experience has shown that life in old age turns into existence. The elderly person motivates the daily desire to live with his/her own efforts. It is difficult and not everyone succeeds in acknowledging that the opportunities are only their own due to the changed level of activity. Care for health has revealed that illness as an existential experience is the cause of weaker viability in old age. Complex well-provided nursing in old age is a counterweight and a source of vitality in old age. Care for alienation has revealed the perception of becoming elderly as the otherness to human identity, as a decline and opposition to life, for the elderly person is no longer what he/she was and is no longer as good as he/she was in his/her youth. |
