• Proceeding of Spring/Autumn Annual Conference of KHA
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.137-142
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to examine the features that make residents feel “at home” in ALFs in Southwest Virginia and to suggest further policy and design guidelines for better Quality of ALFs as a “home.” For this purpose, residents' needs, experiences, and opinions of the physical environment, the social environment, and the organizational environments such as policies and programs of ALFs were identified. As a multi-case study, five ALFs in Southwest Virginia were studied using constant comparative methos of data analysis. In addition to face-to-face interviews with 25 residents and five administrators of five ALFs, observations were conducted with personal journal. Overall, the five sites selected presented homelike features showing the philosophy of assisted living which combines housing and services. Each facility was designed to be a single-family house or multi-family dwelling in outside appearance. As a whole, residents felt isolation and loneliness and they did not have active interaction with other residents because of diverse background among the residents. However, all of them had close relationships with the staff. The staff's attitude and behavior seemed to influence greatly the residents' feeling “at home.” Despite the provision of diverse activities by the facilities, many residents did not participate in the programs. Most of the residents agreed that the rule and regulations were fair. In spite of high satisfaction with the facility, many people did not think of their current dwelling as a real ‘home.’ As the biggest difference between living in their own homes and living in the ALF, people pointed out a lack of independence, freedom, and autonomy. Residents of ALFs may have reordered their priorities in their current life situation so that safety, security, and care were more important to them than feeling “at home.” Among the three factors --physical, social, and organizational-- that affect the residents' perception of ALFs as a “home, ” many emphasized the importance of social factors such as relationships with the staff and residents, and social support from their family or friends.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.23 no.4 s.76
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• pp.67-77
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to identify housing attributes that make residents feel 'at home' in ALFs in Southwest Virginia. For this purpose, residents' needs, experiences, and opinions of the physical environment, the social environment and the organizational environments such as policies and programs of ALFs were identified. As a multi-case study, five ALFs in Southwest Virginia were studied using constant comparative methods of data analysis. In addition to face-to-face interviews with 25 residents and 5 administrators of five ALFs, observations were conducted with personal journal. Each facility was designed to be a single-family house or multi-family dwelling in outside appearance. Most of the respondents were satisfied with their current dwelling as a 'home' in terms of homelike attributes such as 'autonomy/ privacy', personalization,' safety and security,' services and care,' independence,' social interaction/friendship,' family support,' and 'rules and regulations.' In spite of high satisfaction with the facility, however, many people did not think of their current dwelling as a real 'home'. As the biggest difference between living in their own homes and living in the ALF, people feinted out a lack of independence and social interaction. Residents of ALFs may have reordered their priorities in their current life situation so that safety, security, and caie were more important to them than fooling "at home."

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.139-148
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to examine how residents of assisted living facility (ALF) are satisfied with their residence and to identify the reasons for this satisfaction or dissatisfaction as a home. For this purpose, residents'experiences and opinions of the physical environment, the social environment, and the organizational environments such as policies and programs of ALFs were identified. As a multi-site case study, five ALFS in Southwest Virginia were studied using a cross-case analysis. Face-to-face interviews with 25 residents and five administrators of five ALFs, observations, and personal journal were done. Regardless of the type of facilities and the residents'characteristics, most of the respondents were satisfied with their current dwelling. In spite of high satisfaction with the facility, many people did not think of their current dwelling as a real "home." Residents of ALFs may have reordered their priorities in their current life situation so that safety, security, and care were more important to them than feeling "at home.""at home."

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.22 no.6 s.72
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• pp.27-45
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• 2004

The propose of this study was to investigate the management characteristics of assisted living facility(ALF) as an housing alternative for semi-dependent elderly. For this purpose, 5 ALFs which have been well known as best practices in rural Virginia were selected for a multi- site case study. Face-to-face interview with administrators or assistant administrators of i facilities were done. In addition to this, written materials about the each facility and personal record from researcher were used to analyze the data. Six management categories including 82 open-ended questions were analyzed and successful examples and management difficulties were identified from best practices. Based on the results, some recommendations for development of ALFs in Korean elderly were suggested. In short, this study found that best practices which were selected and analyzed in this study showed that successful management was resulted from continuous efforts of the stalls to provide better services in order for improving the quality of life of their residents.