practical living
Bedfellows shouldn’t be so strange
Baby boomers and others
have made it clear they want
to share rooms and sleeping
arrangements with their partners
in aged care; the industry
needs to make this happen.
Alison Rahn interviewed by Dallas Bastian
A
ged-care providers will need to start offering the option
of a shared room with a double bed if they wish to satisfy
future consumer expectations.
This was what PhD candidate Alison Rahn, from the University of
New England, shared with attendees of the National Conference
on Emerging Researchers in Ageing in Canberra recently.
Rahn also says management and staff should give couples the
privacy to conduct their relationships in bed however they wish. Most
aged-care facilities don’t allow partners to share a bed or a room,
she says. She argues that it’s time to investigate whether the present
culture in residential aged care is suitable for the next generation.
“Anecdotally, couples are often routinely separated into
separate beds or separate rooms,” she says. “Until couples’ needs
are adequately documented, they will likely continue to be
discriminated against.”
Rahn sought the views of baby boomers and aged-care workers
as part of her research. The findings reveal that boomers want to
be able to sleep in the same room and bed as their partner and
to be provided with as much privacy as possible.
Here, Aged Care Insite sits down with Rahn to discuss the
different perspectives among baby boomers and aged-care
workers regarding sharing beds in aged care and what providers
should do with the information.
18 agedcareinsite.com.au
ACI: Your survey revealed that baby boomers want to be able
to sleep in the same room and bed as their partner. Why do
you think sharing a bed is particularly important for the baby
boomer generation, and do you think this is an opinion that
younger generations will share?
AR: This is not something that’s peculiar to baby boomers. It just
happens that they were the group surveyed.
The baby boomers who responded said that for those who
wanted to share a bed together, it was a vital part of their
relationship. It’s almost as if the bed was the main setting for
their relationship, it’s where a lot of talking takes place, a lot of
regrouping at the end of the day, where they reconnect and
rekindle their relationship at the beginning and the end of each
day. Things like kissing and cuddling and just holding each other
were the important aspects of keeping that relationship strong.
What can separating couples mean for their health and
wellbeing?
There’s not enough research in this area, but there is evidence
that separating partners increases their likelihood of depressi on. It
also seems to shorten their lifespan and reduce their health. It has
an impact on their quality of life overall, but in particular on their
health and longevity.
It seems that people who are in happy relationships and remain
with their partner live longer and have a better quality of health.
What else was important to the baby boomers who
participated in the study?
They had a lot to say, it was quite interesting. They wanted to
maintain their autonomy for as long as possible; they wanted to
make choices about their lifestyle, such as what time they get up in
the morning, what time they go to bed, what kind of food they eat,