Settling In and Moving On: Transience and Older People in Care Homes

This paper reports on a study which examined the experiences of 46 older people who moved into nursing and residential care homes, interviewing them at four points, from before the move to up to six months afterwards. A key finding was that older people were actively involved in the process of settling into homes and forming new friendships. Participant data also indicated that these older people had often experienced many moves in recent years, as their need for care had changed, and following them through after their inclusion in the study indicated that, for some, there were more moves to come. These data place the debates about assessment, and the identified problem of "misplacement" in a different light. The problem is not simply one of improving assessment techniques so that needs and provision can be matched more accurately, but it may mean accepting that the needs of older people are likely to change over time. The question then is whether we can develop services and forms of provision which ensure that care moves to older people, rather than older people having to move to care.