Use of the decision theory to the choice of mates in an old people’s home

Abstract

This work is a part of a more extensive project to study in depth a very important field, the standard of living of the elderly people and, mainly, those living in assisted residences. We believe is our duty try to analyse which are their worries and needs to provide them with a suitable response. We think that one factor that could make their standard of living better is to improve their relationship with the closer environment; but the reality and experience show that the usually used criteria in the elderly residences to organize assistance areas, don't take into account the old's preferences and opinions. So, we believe that a review of the used criteria is necessary to adapt the institutional dynamics to old people's needs and to improve their standard of living. The home called Residencia de Tercera Edad Mixta located in Almería, was waiting for a removal to a new building at the time we started this work. This situation offered a change to review the organizative system and adapt it to the new notion of integral attention in homes, considering it as the attention to elderly people's bio-psycho-social needs.