Abstract
ABSTRACT Purpose: All over the world, communities face the challenge of maintaining well-being among older adults. More specifically, understanding the resources required to establish and maintain well-being among community-dwelling older adults is an essential issue. Although longing from a caring science perspective is considered a driver for well-being, it has not yet been investigated among frail older adults. The aim of this study was to explore frail older adults’ experiences of longing in daily life and the relation between longing and well-being from a caring science perspective. Method: The study uses a hermeneutical approach and follows a qualitative explorative design. The data comprises texts from 17 interviews with frail older adults and was analysed by content analysis. Results: The results uncovered three themes: Longing for social contacts; Longing for nature and Longing creativity, aesthetics, and music. Longing was positively related to well-being when the older adults were able to fulfil their longings. Conclusion: This study provides an understanding of the mechanisms of longing among frail older adults. Longing, here, is an inner resource for setting into motion the transition towards well-being. Further studies could focus on how frail older adults can be supported to combat the negative forms of longing in daily life.
Highlights
Ageing populations all over the world face the challenge of maintaining their well-being (Nieboer & Cramm, 2018a)
These questions were included in the interview guide: ”What provides you with joy of life and well-being in daily life?”, ”What do you lack, dream of or long for in your daily life?”, ”Is there someone who can help you with fulfiling the things you long for?”
The results showed that the longing that the frail older adults wished for and could be fulfilled led to well-being
Summary
Ageing populations all over the world face the challenge of maintaining their well-being (Nieboer & Cramm, 2018a). Older adults can feel safe, independent, and autonomous when they are in a familiar and meaningful environment, which is the main reason why they wish to age-in-place and remain in their homes throughout their lifetime (DahlinIvanoff et al, 2007; Tan et al, 2015). In this sense, under standing community-dwelling older adults’ recourses for maintaining and establishing their well-being becomes an essential issue. The well-being of older adults is a growing subject matter of importance in policy and in debates regarding economic issues. The improve ment of well-being is seen as a strategic societal objective (Steptoe et al, 2015)
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