Pajalic Zada
The School of Health and Society, the PROCARE Group & The Network for Eating and Nutrition, Kristianstad University, Sweden & The Action Learning, Action Research Association (ALARA), Australia.
Glob J Health Sci. 2013 May 22;5(5):31-40. doi: 10.5539/gjhs.v5n5p31.
Food distribution (FD) is a part of the public social and care service in Sweden aiming to prevent improper food intake for persons that they are unable to do their own shopping, and prepare their own meals, and in that way ensure reasonable standard of living. Before a person can be granted the FD service, from any municipality, an assessment of their individual requirements has to be made by a public home care officer. The aim of this study was to explore how public home care officers reason when they make a needs assessment for homebound elderly people. The data was collected through individual interviews (n=18). The transcribed interview material was analysed by means of the grounded theory method. The findings showed that the public home care officers were confronted with many challenges when making an assessment of a person's individual needs. They are influenced by their subjective feelings related to their personal views as to what should be the right solution for the individual. However, they remained aware that they needed to be guided by the legal requirements. Further, they described that the level of an individual's living standard is a leading concept in the governing laws that they need to interpret. Interpretation of this concept is very subjective with the possible consequence that an assessment result may lead to inefficient support. In conclusion, the concept of a reasonable standard of living needs to be clearly defined, decision regarding FD should not take long time, need assessment and decision should be based on the whole picture behind each individual case and there are needs to develop general guidelines for making needs assessment. The findings in this study have implications for public administration, nursing and gerontology.
食品配送（FD）是瑞典公共社会和护理服务的一部分，旨在防止那些无法自行购物和准备饭菜的人摄入不当食物，从而确保合理的生活水平。在一个人能够从任何市政当局获得食品配送服务之前，公共家庭护理人员必须对其个人需求进行评估。本研究的目的是探讨公共家庭护理人员在为居家老年人进行需求评估时的推理方式。数据通过个人访谈（n = 18）收集。转录的访谈材料采用扎根理论方法进行分析。研究结果表明，公共家庭护理人员在评估个人需求时面临许多挑战。他们受到与个人观点相关的主观感受的影响，这些观点涉及对个人而言正确的解决方案应该是什么。然而，他们仍然意识到需要遵循法律要求。此外，他们描述说个人生活水平是他们需要解释的管理法律中的一个主导概念。对这个概念的解释非常主观，可能导致评估结果支持效率低下。总之，合理生活水平的概念需要明确界定，食品配送的决策不应耗时过长，需求评估和决策应基于每个个案背后的全貌，并且需要制定需求评估的一般指南。本研究的结果对公共行政、护理和老年学具有启示意义。
