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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Making informed choices in social care
— the importance of accessible information | | Author(s) | Kate Baxter, Caroline Glendinning, Sue Clarke |
| Journal title | Health and Social Care in the Community, vol 16, no 2, March 2008 |
| Pages | pp 197-207 |
| Source | http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/hsc |
| Keywords | Services ; Advisory services [elderly] ; Information needs ; Consumer choice ; Projects ; Research Reviews. |
| Annotation | The current policy trend is to encourage greater choice in the use of welfare services. To make informed choices, people need information. The process of finding and using information has costs for individuals in terms of effort, time and material resources. These costs are different for different people and impact on their use of information in different ways. Thus, the accessibility of information is important in ensuring those people who need to make choices can do so in an informed way. This paper discusses the importance of information in making informed choices about social support by drawing on the findings of a scoping review of government research and development activity on the accessibility of information about adult social care services. The scoping review was carried out in spring 2006. Details of recent, current and planned projects were obtained through discussions with staff in government departments, government agencies and other related organisations identified using a snowballing technique. 42 contacts were made. 11 research and 36 development projects were identified that aimed to investigate or improve the accessibility of information about social care services. A limited literature search was undertaken on information needs in areas not already under investigation by government; 18 articles were identified. Information and helpline staff from six voluntary organisations gave their views on the accessibility of information about social care services. The findings show that there is no government-related or other recent research evidence on the specific information access needs for some user groups and services, e.g., people from ethnic minority groups. For other user groups, such as people with chaotic lifestyles, there is evidence on information needs but no current or planned development projects to address these needs. The implications for the costs of finding and processing information to aid informed choices are discussed. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-080402204 A |
| Classmark | I: IT: UV:IK: WYC: 3E: 3A:6KC |
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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