**5. Conclusion**

the findings from this study have important implications for those involved in determining resident's decision-making abilities and potential following entry to residential care homes. These findings challenge beliefs from other studies in HK that all residents are willing to accept help from staff, and are happy being passive recipients of care, and to conform to the dependent role [43]. This perception is in consistent with Confucian ethics and moral obligations to assist and take good care of chronically ill Chinese older people in old age [44–45]. This did not seem appropriate to many residents in this study. Indeed, only those residents in home three were seen to be less active in seeking to perform personal tasks and apparently wanted to be cared for. But this may primarily have been the result of their early learning about the strict 'regime' implemented in this home. An exploratory study by Low et al. [46] had already indicated that many Chinese residents were using their own efforts to support themselves in the homes. Yet, there is again a tension here between residents wanting to maintain privacy in their lives and the Chinese cultural belief in maintaining balance and harmony in relationships. Such findings shed new insights into the creation of social identity and acceptable behaviors for older people in care homes within a Chinese cultural

In understanding resident's decision-making potential and abilities, findings of this current study demonstrate the delicate processes of negotiation and compromise necessary in order to successfully 'negotiate-compromise the past to fit the present' so as to create a way of life that would be familiar and comfortable for the residents. The actions of the resident, family and staff enacted within the dominant pattern of decision-making in the home shaped the extent to which the resident's wishes were either accommodated or compromised. Residents challenged boundaries of the rules and policies of the home to enable them to make judgments about how much flexibility and control they could have over aspects of their lives. In many circumstances, efforts were abandoned as they complied with the prevailing practice of the home. This often followed a process of negotiating and compromising with their requests until an agreed decision was reached. Findings from this current study revealed that when homes operated a rigid-constrained regime, discussions and negotiations were minimal and after experiencing early failure no more efforts were made by the residents to suggest further changes to their lifestyle. This raises important questions about the extent to which residents can operate with a degree of independence or whether in reality the needs of the 'home' will

A number of studies have explored the experiences and well-being of the resilient older person who is relatively active in retaining their unique identity when faced with major threats in later life [47–50]. Among older people receiving long-term community care, Janssen et al. [49]

• Individual domain: refers to a person's qualities (e.g. beliefs about own competence, efforts

• Interactional domain: refers to an older person's cooperation and interaction with others to

• Contextual domain: refers to political-societal level (e.g. accessibility to care and available

identified sources of strengths to buffer against stressful situations. These are:

to exert control, capacity to understand own situation),

context.

240 Gerontology

largely always hold sway.

achieve personal goals, and.

material resources).

The wider literature on decision-making highlights the analytical deductive or the intuitive decision-making approaches to reaching decisions [51]. While the intuitive approach is a quicker, relies on non-analytical reasoning, and makes association with prior learning/memory of similar situations that is context based, the analytical deductive approach is in contrast slower, rule based, systematic logical thinking and context-free [52]. Findings of this study identified that daily lifestyle decisions were residents' main concerns and that in reality decisions involved a combination of both approaches. Residents have to learn the new 'context', compare it with similar experiences (usually often limited) as well as becoming familiar with the rules, both implicit and explicit operating in the homes. If things are to improve there is a need for far greater awareness among families and staff of the delicate processes at play. It is to be hoped that this study has begun to provide just some insights for instigating future improvements in residential care homes for older people.

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