Prerequisites of Identity Continuity of Older People during Residential Care Facility Relocation

Changes that older people experience after relocation to a residential care facility – new people, new physical surroundings and new social demands – have a significant impact on their ability to continue usual lifestyle and therefore pose a threat to personal identity. In academic discourse it is noted that securing the continuity of one’s lifestyle and routines has a positive impact on identity (re)creation and coping with challenges after relocation. The goal of dissertation research was to explain the identity continuity of older people after moving to a residential care facility, based on the constructivist version of grounded theory. The research of dissertation revealed that moving to a residential care facility is an extremely complicated and complex experience for older people, often associated with significant changes in personal expectations for care, sense of self-esteem and regular lifestyle. Dissertation research revealed five prerequisites, important for fostering the sense of identity continuity of older people during the relocation to a residential care facility: personally meaningful connection, desired level of activity, positive attitude towards life, autonomy and sense of control and creating a sense of being “at home”. Along with discovering these prerequisites older people were using three adaptive strategies in attempt to preserve a sense of identity continuity in the context of experienced changes: continuity, compensation and discovering the benefits. Research of dissertation showed that identity (re)construction is a creative, time and conscious effort demanding process, even in case of planned and voluntarily chosen relocations to residential care facilities