Considering that seventy-four million baby boomers will be the next generation of assisted living residents, there is a great need to create, sustain, and evaluate quality in these settings. Whereas most books focus on quality of care, this is the only volume to explicitly delve into the lives of those who inhabit assisted living facilities, seeking to understand and evaluate their perceived ideas of what constitutes quality of life.

Quality Assisted Living provides results from a National Institute on Aging-funded study that gathered information from not only residents, but also staff and family members, who are considered experts who can better help us to understand how quality should be conceived and evaluated. The volume addresses the complexities underlying seemingly clear cut issues and provides concrete suggestions for reframing problems in order to find better solutions. Plentiful stories and quotations are used to identity those elements of assisted living that are most conducive to a satisfying quality of life, and address how this research has led to a consideration of quality as a process rather than as a single condition.

Employs the views and voices of research participants Provides down-to-earth and directly applicable results Written in a language that is accessible to a wide readership Describes complex social situation within the wall of AL Examines issues arising from collective living such as regulations, financing and diverse resident needs Uses real life stories to illustrate key points of the narrative

Considering that seventy-four million baby boomers will be the next generation of assisted living residents, there is a great need to create, sustain, and evaluate quality in these settings. Whereas most books focus on quality of care, this is the only volume to explicitly delve into the lives of those who inhabit assisted living facilities, seeking to understand and evaluate their perceived ideas of what constitutes quality of life.

Quality Assisted Living provides results from a National Institute on Aging-funded study that gathered information from not only residents, but also staff and family members, who are considered experts who can better help us to understand how quality should be conceived and evaluated. The volume addresses the complexities underlying seemingly clear cut issues and provides concrete suggestions for reframing problems in order to find better solutions. Plentiful stories and quotations are used to identity those elements of assisted living that are most conducive to a satisfying quality of life, and address how this research has led to a consideration of quality as a process rather than as a single condition.

Employs the views and voices of research participants Provides down-to-earth and directly applicable results Written in a language that is accessible to a wide readership Describes complex social situation within the wall of AL Examines issues arising from collective living such as regulations, financing and diverse resident needs Uses real life stories to illustrate key points of the narrative

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Quality in Assisted Living: Hearing Residents' Voices

2. The Everyday Experience of Quality in a "Soft Institution"

3. A Culture of Caring

4. Hidden Complexity: Food and Dining in Assisted Living

5. Autonomy in Assisted Living

6. External Constraints: Regulations, Rules, and Financial Realities

7. Broadening Our Perspectives on Quality: Change Over Time in the Quality Balance

8. Moving Toward Quality Balance: Lessons Learned From Resi-dents

Appendix: Research Methods Used for the Study

Index