MAINTAINING CULTURAL AND PERSONAL CONTINUITY IN A DANISH NURSING-HOME

This article makes a contribution to the continuity theory of aging. I t focuses on the disjunction between the therapeutically structured en vironment of a suburban Copenhagen nursing home, and the attempts of s ome of its elderly women residents to maintain cultural and personal c ontinuity after institutionalization. I illustrate the ways in which t he organizational structure of this nursing home did not build upon ea rlier life patterns, and construct an argument for developing cultural ly appropriate services for the elderly, whether Danes or Americans, f rom ethnically diverse backgrounds. My findings suggest that the exist ence of institutionalized elderly can be enhanced by structuring physi cal space and social opportunities in ways which facilitate cultural c onnections between pre- and post-institutionalization lives.