Neither rain, no snow, nor nursing homes can keep them apart
Seniors work hard to keep their marriages alive and well, even afterone spouse falls ill and goes into a long-term care facility, accordingto a new study from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. ResearcherRobin Stadnyk was surprised to discover that community-dwelling spouseswere heavily involved in the lives of their institutionalized partners,and that many of the couples stayed active together both inside andoutside the nursing home. Stadnyk, a post-doctoral researcherin the University of Alberta’s Department of Human Ecology, revieweddata from a qualitative study of 52 community-dwelling spouses in threeCanadian provinces: Alberta, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, for her PhDresearch. She found that the participants were heavily involved intheir spouses’ lives, not only through caretaking duties like doinglaundry and helping with personal hygiene, but also through nurturingactivities that brought them closer together.” Mostparticipants described close relationships with their spouses beforethe placement in a long-term care home. They simply found ways theycould continue that closeness within the institutional walls,” Stadnyknoted. Marriage-sustaining activities included watching TV together,studying travel brochures and reviewing diaries to relive old memories,even taking painting lessons together. Some spouses alsobrought their partners home for regular weekly and even daily visits.One 82-year-old man in the study took weight-training so he could lifthis wife in and out of the car for the weekly trip home.”Thefindings defy the common assumption that the partnership of marriageeffectively ends when one spouse enters a care facility,” Stadnyk said. Even husbands and wives whose partners had dementia continuedto nurture their marriages, shifting from roles as give-andtake-partners to benevolent caretakers. They made sure favourite treatswere available for their spouses, and that they were able to attendspecial events. The results were published recently in the journal Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation.
Source: Eureka Alert