Responses of nursing home residents to intrainstitutional relocation.

Relocation effects may be positive when residents are prepared for the move. The degree to which they exercise control over their environment and participate in the decision-making process influences the outcome of relocation. Planned interventions may offset adverse effects of stress. Prerelocation involvement of the residents we observed in visiting the new facility, and in selecting their bedrooms and roommates, reduced their anxiety to an acceptable, even positive level. These choices had a direct impact on their quality of life. The greater the number of choices the residents had, the more predictable the new environment became. Any stress generated became a positive, rather than a negative, force.