Everyday ethics in assisted living facilitites: a framework for assessing resident-focused issues

Abstract

This article describes and illustrates a framework that may be used when assessing the moral basis of everyday issues that can affect residents of assisted living facilities. The "taxonomy of everyday ethical issues" was an outcome of ethnographic research focused on care of nursing home residents with dementia. However, in this article it is shown to be equally relevant for conceptualizing issues affecting cognitively intact as well as cognitively impaired residents across these two settings. The taxonomy is grounded in some of the more common cultural characteristics of congregate living arrangements for elderly individuals who have needs for varying levels of compensatory and therapeutic oversight by a staff of service providers.