Brukarinflytande - en oklar självklarhet : om brukarinflytande i särskilt boende inom äldreomsorgens kommunala verksamhet

Sammanfattning: This paper is a qualitative study on the influence of the residents in a special communitydwelling within the care system for elderly. The purpose of the study is to describe and analyse with a user perspective how particularly staff members but also a group of retired people living in this dwelling interpret and articulate the concept of resident influence. How the retirees can influence the design and the content of the activities and the organization. How today the residents influence is carried out with the ideas and visions of the future. My methods include qualitative structured, semi-structured and non-structured interviews within a general frame of a resident questionnaire. The staff members present the current situation and reflect on the reasons for obstacles for resident influence. The group of retired people who lives in structures originating in the Swedish long-term care system and homes for the elderly tends to adjust to given routines and express a low-voiced wish for increased influence. The staff members have the opinion that the resident influence first of all is built on values and attitudes. As prerequisites for influence they mentioned among other things increased competence regarding values and attitudes, a new system for recruiting personnel and a leadership adjusted to actual situations. One vision is that some of the staff members hope that a new generation of strong retirees and their children will carry out a revolutionary change of the care system for the elderly. This change will not come from the "outside" of the system or from the "top" but rather from the "inside" and from the "bottom" and as a result of the activities of the residents and their families. A new attitude towards ageing will result in reallocation of power and responsibility and the development of new competences such as psychology and education. In our information and knowledge based society these changes will put additional pressure on the present and particularly on the future care systems for the elderly.