ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the families of institutionalized elderly. Families are an important source of assistance to the community-dwelling elderly and continue to be important in the lives of institutionalized elderly. The chapter has two objectives: (1) to provide an overview of the importance of families to both community-dwelling and institutionalized elderly and (2) to examine the experiences of wives following the institutionalization of elderly husbands. In pursuing the second objective, while the empirical examination will be confined to wives, the findings apply to spouses of institutionalized elders, whether wives or husbands. A conceptual model, developed from a pilot study, will be presented. The model depicts four stages in the process experienced by wives. The major characteristics of each stage lead to calling stage I ‘Ambivalence/uncertainty’, stage II ‘Assisting/action’, stage III ‘Relinquishing/augmenting’ and stage IV ‘Adaptation/resolution’. The distinctive characteristics of each stage imply that different types of interventions are appropriate at different stages.