| Abstract: | Elderly people are the most vulnerable members of the society whose mental and physical
deteriorations pose a great challenge to their well-being. Though there are fragmented
researches about elderly people, there is little study assessing the institutional life of elderly
people. Hence, this research attempted to study the lived experience of the elder people in
institution. To fulfill the objective this study used qualitative design, with phenomenology
approach. Using purposive sampling 10 elders who are living in the institution and 10 care
givers who are giving care and support of elders were selected and took part in the study.
Interview and document analysis were the major instruments of data collection. The finding
organized into four thematic area: like pre institutional life experience, institutional life
experience, opportunities and challenges of institutional life and coping mechanisms used during
institutional life of elders. The finding indicated that the elders pre-institutional life experience
was Lost their family member, their children have not interested to care and support them,
physically enabled to generate income for survival, they could not fulfilled their basic need
because of their economic status, they did not get quality health treatment, ignored by the society
and feel loneness, hopelessness, live on streets and when the elders entered in institution they get
different services like Shelter/bed rooms/, food, counseling service, health care service, hygiene
facilities, assisted caring , clothing and funeral service. It is concluded that though institutional
life improves the wellbeing of the elderly people, community care and support arrangement is
the preferred setting for the elderly people. Hence volunteers or concerned bodies, the
government and the social worker have the responsibility to facilitate conducive environment of
elder in the community arrangement |
