Perceived resident–facility fit and sense of control in assisted living

•Perceived resident–facility fit and sense of control in assisted living•Assisted living residents' autonomy is connected with several relational factors.•Perceived resident–facility fit indicates whether residents feel autonomous or not.•Good resident–facility fit shows as having sense of control in one's environment.

The concept of resident–facility fit has largely been used to illustrate whether a residential care facility and a resident are together able to meet requirements set by only the hampering functional abilities of the latter. The purpose of this paper is to study how assisted living residents perceive resident–facility fit. The data were gathered ethnographically from both observations and resident interviews in a sheltered home in Finland during 2013–2014. Perceived resident–facility fit is based on several relational factors that connect to both the residents as individuals and their surroundings. This fit seems also to be partly conditional and indeed depends on residents' trust in having their own potential to act. Good resident–facility fit results in feeling at home in a facility, whereas poor fit can even result in residents' feeling imprisoned. Care providers can thus utilize our results to affirm residents' quality of life in residential facilities.