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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Needs assessment and palliative care
— the views of providers | | Author(s) | David Clark, Helen Malson, Neil Small |
| Journal title | Journal of Public Health Medicine, vol 19, no 4, December 1997 |
| Pages | pp 437-442 |
| Keywords | Terminal care ; Needs [elderly] ; Evaluation ; Management [care] ; Social surveys. |
| Annotation | Data presented are from a larger enquiry into the impact of NHS reforms on the hospice movement: results from a national postal survey of NHS units and private hospices with a 63% response rate; and detailed case studies of 12 hospices. In the survey, 49% of those responding reported that their main purchaser had conducted a needs assessment for palliative care in the last 5 years. Palliative care needs assessment was seen as valuable by providers: 73 considered it very important; and 28% of hospices had requested a needs assessment from their health authority. 66% of those responding to an open-ended question on the impact of health needs assessment stated that the impact had been or would be positive. The case studies revealed a more mixed picture: few providers had participated in design of needs assessment; there were low levels of knowledge about the findings; and high expectations of the value of assessments were often not fulfilled. There was also a tendency for providers to view needs assessment in a way which would promote their own interests. Purchaser-provider dialogue on needs assessment should focus on raising awareness of appropriate techniques, and debating `ethical neutrality' about the outcome. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980813002 A |
| Classmark | LV: IK: 4C: QA: 3F |
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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