[Homes for the aged: a source of increasing concern? (5). The last stage of life]

The object of this study was the physical and psycho-social functioning of residents of an old people's home in the last period of their life. Because of the size of the sample, it was possible to distinguish residents who died before from residents who died after changes in the organisation had been implemented. All residents declined physically over the last eight months or over the last twenty months before dying. However, in the period after the organizational changes had been introduced, psycho-social functioning developed independently from physical infirmity: in psycho-social aspects there was no further decline. Thus, our results disconfirm the generally held deficit model. Which means that residents of the old people's home are capable to function in a psychologically fulfilling way until the last moment of their life.