Varför kan jag inte sitta ensam på julafton? : Åtta röster om sociala behov i eget boende

Author: Annelie Kjellström & Victoria Svensson Title: ”Why can’t I sit alone on Christmas Eve?” Eight voices regarding social needs in own housing. Supervisor: Magdalena Damberg Assessor: Jan Petersson The aim of this essay is to investigate what social needs care receivers within the geriatric care have, and have had, and whether theirs social needs today are met or not. We also want to get an understanding of how elderly want to get their social needs met. We want to get answers to that by the following questions. How does a good day look like from the care receiver’s point of view? Does the care receiver’s wish agree with the actual situation and have the social needs changed with increasing age? To what degree are they listened to, and what are one listening to? In our study we have used earlier studies and different theories as aging and modernization by Cowgill and Holmes, Meads view of mind, self and society and a development theory of positive aging by Tornstam to interpret the material. The research effort in the study is qualitative. The empirical study is built on interviews with eight respondents in the age of 74 to 93. The respondents are care receivers and have been selected by unit managers in one of the municipalities of Kalmar County. Results and analysis will be integrally shown. Our result shows that the respondents have different social needs. The social need consists of, for example, seeing relatives or friends, participate in various activities and reading books. What we found was that health is an important factor for how well the social needs can be met. We take it as most respondents experience their life as meaningful despite poor health and strength. Keywords: Social needs, elderly people, care receivers, geriatric care, social constructions.