Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T04:30:44.916Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Allocation of Care and Services in an Area-Based System for Long-Term Care of Elderly and Disabled People

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Mårten Lagergren
Affiliation:
Socialdepartementet, 103 33 Stockholm, Sweden.

Abstract

In order to analyse the allocation of public care services in the city of Solna, Sweden, and how they changed in response to a rapid growth of the number of elderly people, a comparison was made between two surveys, 1985 and 1991.

The surveys comprised all citizens of Solna who, on the day of the survey, were receiving long-term public medical and/or social care services. Living arrangements and services received were registered together with assessments of social support and disability/dependency. The latter was measured according to a special scale (the ASIM index) and – for 1991 – the Katz index of ADL. The assessments were made by the ordinary staff. The analysis showed that older and non-married persons were more likely to become clients of the public care system. Institutionalisation was also more common among the non-married – especially for men.

Connected to the rapid increase in the number of the very old in the context of limited resources was a sharp decline during the period 1985–1991 in the proportion of the Solna population that received public care services in some form. This decline concerned all age-groups of both sexes, married as well as non-married, but the married were more affected than the non-married – especially among the women. The reductions in the proportion of the population that received care in the home affected mostly married persons in the oldest age group. Reductions in institutionalisation had most impact on very old, non-married men – partly counteracted by increases in the provision of home help. Multivariate analysis showed functional disability – in 1991 dependency in ADL according to Katz - and living arrangements to be the most important variables in explaining the allocation of home help in domiciliary care and sheltered housing.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bay, K. S., Leatt, P. and Stinson, S. 1982. A Patient-classification System for Long-term Care. Medical Care, 20, 468488.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brorsson, B. and Hulter, Åsberg K. 1984. Katz index of independence in ADL. Scandinavian Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 16, 125132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferlie, E., Challis, D. and Davies, B. 1989. Efficiency-Improving Innovations in Social Care of the Elderly. Gower Publishing Company Ltd. Aldershot.Google Scholar
Goldberg, E. M. and Connelly, N. 1982. The effectiveness of social care for the elderly. Heinemann Educational Books, London.Google Scholar
Johansson, L. and Thorslund, M. 1991. Sheltered housing- for whom? Socialmedicinsk tidskrift, 2–3, 99104. (In Swedish.)Google Scholar
Kane, R. A. and Kane, R. L. 1981. Assessing the elderly. Lexington Books, Lexington.Google Scholar
Katz, S., Ford, A. B., Moskowitz, R. W., Jackson, B. A. and Jaffe, M. W. 1963. Studies of illness in the aged. The index of ADL: A standardized measure of biological and psychosocial function. Journal of the American Medical Association, 185, 9499.Google Scholar
Lagergren, M. 1993 a. ASIM- a system for monitoring and evaluation of the care of the elderly and disabled in a municipality. Health Services Research, 28, 2744.Google Scholar
Lagergren, M. 1993 b. The Residential Home – what difference does it make? Scandinavia Journal of Social Welfare, 1, 2532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lagergren, M. 1994. De-institutionalisation and aging – some results from monitoring the effects in an area-based system of long-term care for the elderly and disabled. Health and Social Care in the community, 2, 1930.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhys Hearn, C. 1983. Comparison of the Nursing Dependency of Elderly Patients in a Number of Different Residential Settings: I. Australia. Paper presented at Systed '83 Conference,Montreal, Canada,9–16 July, 1983.Google Scholar
Sundström, G. 1987. Old Care in Sweden – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. The Swedish Institute, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Thorslund, M. 1988. The De-institutionalization of Care of the Elderly: Some Notes about Implementation and Outcome of a Swedish Case-study. Health Policy, 10, 4156.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thorslund, M. and Wernberg, K. 1988. Who moves to sheltered housing? Social Forskning, 4, 1213 (In Swedish).Google Scholar
Thorslund, M., Norström, T. and Wernberg, K. 1991. The utilization of home help in Sweden: A multivariate analysis. The Gerontologist, 31, 116119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tilquin, C. and Vanderstraeten, G. 1988. Health and Social Resources Planning Based on Activity Analysis – A Quebec Experience in the Long-Term Care and Services Sector for the Elderly. In Zweifel, P. (ed). Beiträge zur Gesundheitsökonomie. Bleicher Verlag. Gerungen.Google Scholar
Wade, B. 1983. Comparison of the Nursing Dependency of Elderly Patients in a Number of Different Care Settings: II. United Kingdom. Paper presented at Systed '83 Conference, Montreal, Canada, 9–16 07, 1983.Google Scholar