An examination of the commmunication of the family health centre staff with the elderly and the impact of their communication skills on the satisfaction of the elderly

Family Health Centres are health institutiosn that offer preventative, therapeutic and rehabilitative services to the individuals during every stage of their lives. Family health centres have an important place due to them being the first point of contact for the elderly and their proximity to where they live. In elderly care, communiction is an important factor in achieving the care at the desired level and meeting the targeted aim.. The purpose of this study is to assess the communication skills of doctors, family health centre staff, medical admin and cleaning personnel at the Family Health Centre alongside the elderly receiving support from the Family Health Centres and to assess the impact of communication skills on the satisfaction of the elderly. As part of this, communication skills and satisfaction surveys were carried out with 100 elderly people from 19 family health centres out of 22 family health centres in Sultanbeyli district of Istanbul. Also, face to face surveys were carried out with 100 staff members at family health centres. The study found the quality of family health centre staff's communication skills with the elderly at mediu-level.The impact of staff's demographic characteristics on communication skills was not found to be significant. The communication skills of the elderly and their satisfaction scores were found to be high. It was found that communication skills had an increasing effect on elderly people's satisfaction level. Finally, it was statistically found that elderly people's demographic characteristics did not have a significant impact on communication skills.