建構賦權式以社區為基礎的獨居老人照護模式

The elderly population is the fastest growing cohort in Taiwan. With more and more children leaving have for work or study, their older parents have become the elderly who live alone whether voluntarily or otherwise. Although the government in Taiwan has put in much effort and mobilized many kinds of formal resources to provide services to those elderly who live alone, these policies and services are initiated according to discussions from experts, health professionals, or decisions from departmental managers in the government. Whether those services, which are initiated by the government, meet the needs of those elderly who live alone is unknown. The purposes of this paper are to analyze one example of community-based elderly care services based on the empowerment concept, which was initiated by the authors, and then to summarize the roles and function of community health nurses in this empowering community-based service for the elderly living alone.