Improving Elderly Peoples Quality Of Life Through...

Summary: The aim of my research project was to find how to improve elderly people’s quality of life through occupational therapy (OT). I had chosen this topic because my elderly grandparents were undertaking the acquisition of OT services, and I wanted to use the research project to improve their experience. I used three main primary sources to gain insight into elderly problems; two questionnaires, for the elderly, and OTs, to gain information from both parties, and I interviewed an OT to gain a better understanding of OT training, experience and the scope of work OTs provide. Secondary sources such as a documentary, books, webpages and news articles were used to give credence to the responses, with each being appropriately sourced to†¦show more content†¦Secondary sources were still useful, with webpages/research papers and a documentary confirming OT and elderly questionnaire responses. Possible bias may have come from sources; therefore searching was done on more platforms , like the internet, Tea Tree Gully and School Libraries, and Federal Government resources. This research diversity reduced bias and contributed to a well-rounded, accurate and higher quality outcome. Questionnaires – elderly and occupational therapists (OT) This research process focussed on gaining primary, direct information from the elderly and OTs. The response format of a questionnaire instead of a straight â€Å"yes/no† answer allowed detailed qualitative answers, giving me a better understanding of the elderly’s problems and OT judgements. I used answers as quantitative data; similar elderly problems were grouped under a category like â€Å"mobility† and a column graph was generated to visually show this information. This form of research collection was extremely relevant and reliable as the information came straight from the source. Unfortunately, the elderly responses could have bias, as the majority were gathered from one retirement village in the north-eastern suburbs. If this project was to be redone, this could be rectified by circulating questionnaires to suburbs of different socio-economic backgrounds. With the OT questionnaires, this occurred: the questionnaires were circulated to OTs of varying experience, allowing answers from new and