Alkohol inom äldreomsorgen
Hur hanteras problematiken?
Alcohol problem. Geriatric care. Home care service. Power. Ageism.Alkoholproblem. Särskilt boende. Hemtjänst. Makt. Ålderism.
The purpose of our qualitative study is to investigate how the caretakers, in the elderly care,interpret and manage the issue of alcohol problems in elderly people. We have beenperforming semi-structured interviews on 9 people, on different levels in the elderly care.There were 3 elderly care managers, 1 nurse, 1 assistance administrator and 4 auxiliarynurses, who all, at some level, work with alcohol problems in elderly people. Thoseinterviews were performed singularly, with one exception: we interviewed an elderly caremanager and her 2 auxiliary nurses at the same time. To analyse our empirics, we have usedthe theories of Power and Ageism. Our study shows that the auxiliary nurses, who are theones who must deal with these problems, have great difficulties to perform their work becausethey have no qualified knowledge about alcohol problems. In addition, they almost never getthe proper information, they don?t have access to guidelines about handling people withalcohol problems and they don?t receive support from their superiors. They have to make themost difficult decisions for themselves without any resources or other guidance.