Older Adults’ Engagement in Residential Care: Pitfalls, Potentials, and the Role of ICTs

Over the previous years, the residential care sector has gone through a transition from a rather paternalistic approach towards a more democratic way of caregiving. Nevertheless, many care organizations still find it challenging to engage their residents in the process of care. In this study, we investigated the challenges regarding the engagement of older adults in residential care. As recent studies indicated the increasing opportunities of ICTs, we paid particular attention to this in the process of engagement. We followed a participatory action research approach among caregivers and older adults at a somatic care department in a care residence in the Netherlands. Methods used included 15 participants in two homogeneous group sessions, reflections on action in practice, and one mixed focus group. Our findings show that both caregivers and older adults acknowledge the importance of engagement in daily care. However, their different perspectives on how this should take place, made the actual engagement of older adults a challenge. We determined three dilemmas complicating this engagement in care, and labeled these (1) autonomy versus dependence; (2) personal experiences versus privacy; and (3) happiness versus honesty. We found different ways of how caregivers and older adults deal with these dilemma’s in practice and defined these in terms of pitfalls and potentials. ICTs were shown to reinforce both the pitfalls and potentials. Paying attention to these challenges in residential care, including how caregivers and older adults deal with these challenges, will encourage a mutual understanding and actual engagement in decisions on daily care. Further research is recommended on the role of organizations’ management, older adults’ relatives, or older adults with cognitive impairments.