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Sexual Situations in Spanish Long-Term Care Facilities: Which Ones Cause the Most Discomfort to Staff?

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Abstract

This study aimed to explore which kinds of residents’ sexual expressions cause the most discomfort to staff and to determine the situational circumstances that might be related to this perception of discomfort. The sample was made up of 1895 front-line care staff employed at 152 Spanish long-term care facilities. Participants’ answers to an open-ended question regarding the sexual situation that caused them the most discomfort were content-analyzed. Results showed that most participants were able to mention at least one sexual situation that had caused them discomfort. Moreover, the range of sexual situations mentioned by our participants clearly goes beyond the typical behaviors associated with inappropriate sexual behaviors in dementia. Situational circumstances were related to participants’ perception of discomfort. Our results suggest the importance of including sexual issues on the formal training of staff and developing explicit guidelines and institutional policies regarding sexual expression in long-term care facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron 171, 08035, Barcelona, Spain

    Feliciano Villar, Montserrat Celdrán, Rodrigo Serrat, Josep Fabà & Mònica Genover

  2. Consejería de Servicios y Derechos Sociales del Principado de Asturias, Oviedo, Spain

    Teresa Martínez

Authors
  1. Feliciano Villar
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  2. Montserrat Celdrán
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  3. Rodrigo Serrat
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  4. Josep Fabà
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  5. Mònica Genover
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  6. Teresa Martínez
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Correspondence to Feliciano Villar.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the ethical committees of the institutions participating in the study and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Villar, F., Celdrán, M., Serrat, R. et al. Sexual Situations in Spanish Long-Term Care Facilities: Which Ones Cause the Most Discomfort to Staff?. Sex Res Soc Policy 16, 446–454 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0346-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0346-9

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