• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.25 no.1 s.85
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• pp.127-144
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• 2007

This study was conducted for the purpose of analyzing volunteer workers' perceptions of and attitudes toward the behavior problems of the elderly residents after caring for the residents voluntarily at low-income nursing homes. Eleven male and female volunteers ranging from age 19 to 52 were asked how they felt about the elderly residents' behavior problems and what kind of behavioral problems they had experienced after doing volunteer works in the three chosen facilities. In particular, they were expected to explain what emotional changes they experienced during their volunteer service. In this study, it was observed that most of the elderly subjects experienced three categories of behavior problems: habitual, repetitious and unreasonable activities caused by the elderly residents' life span backgrounds, unexpected and/or abrupt behaviors resulting from gradual cognitive impairments, and physiological, awkward activities caused from gradual senility. The volunteers tend to believe that the elderly residents are naturally expected to act positively, since they have been provided with well- planned, regular care services such as bathing, counseling, activity programs, and religious guidances. On the other hand, some respondents stated that their experiences at the nursing homes caused them to form negative images of the elderly; they feel that the elderly are not helpful for giving advices on critical decisions, guiding and encouraging their daily lives, and offering any positive influences toward their own lives. Rather, they find themselves getting too much stressed as a result of their intimate contacts with demented or senile residents. Overall, in this study, it is proposed that education for confronting sudden abrupt behavior problems should be intensified more for female volunteers, since they tend to be more susceptible to emotional harassment resulting from the problem behaviors. It is also proposed that young volunteers who have not been systematically trained for confronting aggressive behaviors need to be separately assigned their roles in order to minimize the potential of confronting unseemly situations resulting from male residents whose mental health has deteriorated. Furthermore, it is also suggested that the combination of leisure-related activities for healthy residents and stressful intimate services for the frail residents be systematically planned and implanted for the volunteer program so that the volunteers can lessen the chances of suddenly finding themselves confronted with extremely abrupt agitations.