機構老人憂鬱感、希望感、死亡態度及其相關之探討
摘要
This comparative descriptive research is designed to explore the depression, sense of hope and the attitude toward death of the elders in the institutions. Using a convenient sampling method, we recruited the elders from one assisted dwelling house, two senior care centers and two nursing homes. Two hundred and sixty-eight elders participated in this study. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection by interviewing the elders or answering by themselves. The Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS), version 11.0, was applied to analyze the data. Most of the elders in the study were females, aged over 70 years old, no spouse, educated in junior or senior high school level, and without the financial problem. All the above elders had religious beliefs, but did not participate in religious activities on a regular basis. Most of them felt unhappy and tend to be depressive. The sense of hope of the elders in the senior care center was higher than that in the assisted dwelling house and nursing home. The negative attitude toward death of the elders in the nursing home is higher than that in the senior care center and the assisted dwelling house. The degree of religious beliefs, economic state, and residing style are the major factors related to the elder’s depression and sense of hope. Further, the sense of hope and the depression bear close relations to the positive and negative attitudes, respectively, of the elders toward death. It is suggested that the institutions should provide spiritual care for them by means of enhancing an interpersonal network, enriching religious resources, improving the elder’s sense of hope, developing a positive attitude toward death, and eventually promoting the quality care for the elders.