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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Bleddyn P. Davies Davies, MA DPhil and José-Luis Fernandez Fernandez, MA. PSSRU, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, WC2 2AE, England, 44 1227 827634, B.P.Davies@ukc.ac.uk
Evaluating the effects of the reforms thus far, the White Paper Modernizing Social Services in 1998 commented that 'this focus on individual care management, focused towards helping more people to live in their own homes, was the key change to the system'. There is strong evidence that the reforms did indeed make the system more effective in avoiding inappropriate admissions to institutions for long-term care. But did British style care-managed community care provide users with the feeling that they exercised choice and influence on care packages? Would the deployment of services which would maximize the sense of empowerment of users over their lives also result in better outcomes by other criteria, given the nature of the services and the overall level of spending? In considering these questions, the paper analyses data from a major study in ten local health authorities in England and Wales. The elements of the data base most used in the analysis are interviews with a cohort of 419 users, their principal informal caregivers and care managers and the tracking of service utilization and costs. The results [a] show a substantial proportion of users to feel influence over care plans, but [b] suggest that other benefits foregone would be great were the maximization of the degree of felt influence made the main objective of the system.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Consumer Direction, Home Care
Related Web page: www.ukc.ac.uk/pssru/PDFfiles/eepflyer.pdf
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.