從孤老與流浪犬貓互動探索生命價值的溫度-以某安養社區為例

Abstract

當前居住在安養機構長者的生活方式，大都是採規律式的型態，例如固定三餐與生活作息時間的安排，以及每位長者都有自己的用餐座位等等，在這些過程當中顯現出的是一種比較規律、制式化的生活方式。用這種方式主要是因為老人家通常比較容易遺忘，安排規律的生活起居，為的就是要避免讓長者在認知上產生不必要的困擾。雖然安養機構平常也會配合長者們的不同需求，安排各類的團康活動或是手作課程，提供長者們多樣化的選擇。但由於過往較少有人去關注安養機構長者的生活多樣性的可能，認為他們能配合規律的生活作息即可。為了進一步探討如何讓這群長者們的生活，加入一些變化與注入更多活力的可行性，本研究是希望能藉由長者與溫和流浪犬貓的互動，創造多樣化的活動樂趣，增添人與動物間的情感交流溫度，進而同時提升彼此的生命價值。因此，本研究主要是在探究獨居在安養機構的長者，如何透過與溫和的流浪犬貓互動或陪伴這些流浪犬貓，並保持其行動能力和減緩其退化的時間，以重拾長者的自信與提升生命價值。也就是說，透過「動物陪伴」的互動方式，在長者主動對同伴動物付出關愛的過程中，心靈上也將會同時獲得「被重視」與「被需要」的情感交流。相信找回「自我肯定」以及「自我認同」的價值感，能讓獨居在安養機構長者維持並提升情緒健康。本研究方法是利用參與觀察法，藉由田野筆記做觀察紀錄，來說明長者如何因著這群流浪犬貓介入其生活之後，所產生不同於以往的情緒健康，作為日後安養機構在照顧長者方式上的參考。

The lifestyles of the elders currently living in nursing homes are mostly regular patterns, such as fixed meals and daily schedules, and each elder has his own dining seat, etc. These processes show that it is a relatively regular and standardized lifestyle. The main reason for this method is that the elderly are usually more likely to forget and arrange regular daily routines in order to avoid unnecessary confusion for the elderly. Although nursing homes usually cater to the different needs of the elderly, arrange various group recreation activities or hand-made courses to provide the elderly with diversified choices. However, since few people in the past paid attention to the possibility of the diversity of life of the elderly in nursing homes, they believed that they could cooperate with the regular daily routine. In order to further explore the feasibility of adding some changes and injecting more vitality into the lives of this group of elders, this study hopes to create diversified activities and enjoyment through the interaction between the elders and the gentle stray dogs and cats. The emotional communication temperature between animals, and then at the same time enhance each other's life value. Therefore, this research is mainly to explore how elderly people living alone in nursing homes can interact with or accompany these stray dogs and cats with gentle stray dogs and cats, and maintain their mobility and slow down their degeneration time, so as to regain the elderly’s health. Confidence and enhance the value of life. In other words, through the interactive method of "animal companionship", in the process of taking the initiative to care for companion animals, the elders will also get the emotional communication of being "valued" and "needed" at the same time. It is believed that retrieving the sense of value of "self-affirmation" and "self-identification" can enable elderly people living alone in nursing homes to maintain and improve their emotional health. The method of this research is to use the method of participatory observation and field notes to make observation records to illustrate how the elderly have different emotional health from the intervention of this group of stray dogs and cats in their lives. It will be served as a reference for nursing care institutions in the future in caring for the elderly.