The Importance of Sexuality Program Objectives to Long-Term Care Staff

The opinions of long-term care staff were surveyed regarding the importance of objectives of a program that would provide staff education and training regarding the sexuality of older people. A literature review determined what staff needed to know about elderly sexuality, the needs of elderly people related to their sexuality, and how caregivers could best assist them in meeting those needs. A four-page booklet was developed and distributed to long-term staff at 4 locations; 97 staff from long-term facilities in Oklahoma, Virginia, and Michigan participated. Each booklet included a questionnaire asking for information about the individuals completing the survey and the 17 program objectives. Respondents ranked objectives from 1-17 with 1 being the most important and 17 the least. "Understanding that older people's needs and wants related to intimacy, sensuality, and sexuality vary widely just as they do for younger people" was the objective that received the highest ranking. The two objectives that received the lowest rankings were "Identifying appropriate responses to masturbation" and "Identifying issues related to homosexuality." Pearsonian correlation coefficients were calculated and indicated differences among the staff related to political views, degrees of religiosity, experience, age, and other demographic variables. (Six data tables are appended.) (YLB)