Are long-term hospitalized geriatric patients abandoned by their families?
The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to find out to what extent and for what reasons contacts with relatives have been exhausted for long-term geriatric patients in public institutions, and second, whether there is a significant difference in family contacts for the State Hospital patient as compared to the County Hospital patient. Are the reasons for changes in the family contacts basically social-psychological, medical, or economic. Such a study of family interaction requires an investigation of (a) living arrangements, family relationships, and socio-economic background prior to the hospitalization; (b) the reasons for hospitalization and the present medical diagnosis; (c) the currents economic situation of the patients and her family; and (d) the distance of the relatives’ residence from the hospital. This study attempts to obtain objective evidence in order to find answers to the above questions and to clarify the key issue of whether long-term hospitalized geriatric patients are in fact abandoned by their families.
Aged Family relationships, Geriatrics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
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