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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Quality in home care for older people
— factors to pay heed to | | Author(s) | Charles Patmore |
| Journal title | Quality in Ageing, vol 5, no 1, June 2004 |
| Pages | pp 32-40 |
| Source | www.pavpub.com |
| Keywords | Domiciliary services ; Quality ; Social Services Departments ; Consumer choice. |
| Annotation | 23 home care providers were interviewed concerning what promotes or impedes quality aspects of service giving, as defined by older customers. The influence of social service purchasers and of structures for purchasing care proved notably important. Purchasers offered service quality through the amounts of time that they commissioned and through whether they would purchase help for customers' quality of life as well as for their physical survival. Quality was affected through whether care was purchased through fixed quantities of time or through fulfilment of specified tasks. Some purchasers controlled details of everyday caregiving, which other purchasers left to providers' discretion. Also influential was the attitude of providers themselves to giving miscellaneous occasional help like changing light bulbs, finding reliable private tradesmen or taking customers on shopping trips. While some providers readily gave such help, others prohibited it, although this seemed not to be implemented earnestly. The most marked differences in willingness to give flexible help occurred between different independent sector providers, rather than between independent and social service in-house providers. A third type of influence on quality of home care was "economic" factors like the purchasing power of local home care pay rates within the local labour market, local geography and demography. Some questions are itemised which merit inclusion in any evaluation of a home care provider. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-040720216 A |
| Classmark | N: 59: PF: WYC |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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