Hope, who needs it? : a study of hope in older people in a residential care facility

This paper presents an analysis of the reflections on the meaning of hope of ten residents living in a residential care facility on the outskirts of Western Sydney, New South Wales. The researchers were interested to find out the perceptions that older people had about hope, the usefulness narrative and reminiscence in exploring this concept and the relationship between perceptions of hope and wellbeing. One interviewee was in fact 47 years old and therefore not, strictly speaking, an older person. Nevertheless his experience was similar enough to that of other residents to merit inclusion in the study. Each personal semi-structured interview took approximately one hour to conduct. Three themes emerged from the data: The meaning of hope for these residents; engenders of hope, i.e. those factors which promote hope; and finally, issues around coping and adjustment as significant elements in the experience of living in a residential care facility. One of the main findings of the research is that the assumption that hope increases wellbeing has perhaps more to do with society's preoccupation of older people's needs than with the felt needs of older people themselves.