THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF BEING AT HOME: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION (ELDERLY, RELOCATION).

Description

Many persons, most notably the elderly, at some point in their lives will face the prospect of being uprooted from familiar surroundings and forced to relocate in a home not necessarily of their liking or their choosing. When this occurs, it is often difficult to become "at home." The purpose of this study was to better understand the concept of home and its meaning from the lived experience of individuals. Symbolic Interaction, phenomenology, and lifespan continuity, form the theoretical framework for this inquiry into the nature of the concept of home and guided the analysis of the findings. Purposeful sampling resulted in a final study population of ten participants residing in homes that provided some level of supervision. Field notes were written and open-ended interviews were audio-taped, transcribed, and subjected to the Giorgi (1985) phenomenological method of analysis. Seven recurring themes emerged that encompassed the essence of "feeling at home" including: privacy, respect, affection, security, autonomy, commonality, and significance. The findings suggest that individuals create their own experience of being at home based upon previously established patterns that have characterized their life histories. Different themes assume varying degrees of importance unique to different persons. When relocation of home becomes necessary, individuals seek continuity of life themes. It was concluded that the experience of feeling at home is an individualized phenomenon, although some commonalities exist. It was found that the physical structure of the surroundings of the new home had little to do with the acceptance of the environment as home; rather the personal person-environment interactions, reflective of individual philosophies, were the key determinants contributing to a sense of being at home in the new situation. Recommendations for future study included: additional phenomenological research on the lived experience of home in other populations and correlations between feeling at home and morbidity in long-term care situations.

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