The Role of Adult Social Care in the Prevention of Intensive Health and Care Needs: A Scoping Review

Context: Despite the strong emphasis on prevention in social care policy, there is a lack of evidence on the effectiveness of preventive social care interventions to delay escalation of intensive care needs.

Objective(s): We reviewed the literature relating to the role of Adult Social Care to prevent escalation of care needs. We aimed to identify mechanisms in service delivery that prevent development of long-term care needs.

Method(s): We used the PRISMA-ScR framework to review papers reporting the (cost)effectiveness of preventative services. Findings were qualitatively synthesised using elements of realist synthesis.

Findings: Thirty-one papers were included covering: integrated care, intermediate care, rehabilitation, post-discharge services, community-based care, and domiciliary care. Overall, we found few studies with conclusive results to inform policy and practice. Moreover, the evidence was mostly concerned with the impact of social care on health care utilisation, with relatively few studies addressing the impact on social care utilisation. There was some preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of multi-faceted support set within the community, and improvements were observed for patients’ Quality of Life.

Limitations: The variety of papers we included reflects the complexity of the social care landscape but prevents robust assessment of the impact of services to delay advancing care needs.