Needs assessment of homebound elders in a parish church: Implications for parish nursing

The goals in managing chronic illnesses in the elderly are to maintain the highest possible level of functioning, promote independence in self-care, a nd enhance quality of life. Parish nursing is one mechanism for providing c are for homebound elders with one or more chronic illnesses. However, deter mining the holistic health needs of older parishioners before developing a parish nursing program is helpful. The holistic needs of elders in two pari shes were determined through two multidimensional functional assessment que stionnaires and a quality of life scale. Results indicate that this populat ion of elders had relatively high levels of functioning. Quality of life wa s relatively high and was associated with overall functional abilities.