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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| An evaluation of a specialist multiagency home support service for older people with dementia using qualitative methods | | Author(s) | Ian Rothera, Rob Jones, Rowan Harwood |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 23, no 1, January 2008 |
| Pages | pp 65-72 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Domiciliary services ; Coordination ; Interaction [welfare services] ; Evaluation ; Qualitative Studies ; Nottingham. |
| Annotation | Standard home care support in the UK for people with dementia has been criticised in statutory inspection reports, and may lead to unnecessary crises and admission to hospital or care homes. A qualitative study in two demographically similar areas of Nottingham - one served by a specialist home care team, the other by standard services - aimed to establish which provided better quality of care, and how any improvements were achieved. Participants were 27 service users, 176 family carers, 17 home care workers and 20 health or social care professionals across both services. The specialist service demonstrated greater flexibility and responsiveness to the particular needs and circumstances of services users and family carers, who were encouraged to participate in routine decision-making and activities. By sharing responsibilities, the specialist service helped reduce carer stress and prevent crises. These outcomes depend on the configuration of the service, including multidisciplinary health and social services input, care worker autonomy and independence, continuous reassessment of clients' circumstances and preferences, and the capacity to develop long-term relationships through care worker continuity. The standard service, which used a task-oriented approach, lacked these characteristics. The study provides evidence of the benefits of a specialist multi-agency home support service over standard home care, in the opinion of service users, cares and care workers, and defines the operational model to achieve this. Findings confirm best practice recommendations, based on models of dementia care which emphasise respect for "personhood". (RH) |
| Accession Number | CPA-080212212 A |
| Classmark | EA: N: QAJ: QK6: 4C: 3DP: 8NTF |
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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