Community Care for Frail Older People. Analysis Using the 1998/9 General Household Survey

<p>Successive Government policies have emphasised the objective of caring for older people in the community rather than in<p><p>residential settings. This paper looks at patterns of care for frail older people living in private households, using data from<p><p>the 1998/9 General Household Survey (GHS) on people aged 65 and over.

<p><p><p>The 1998/9 GHS is of particular interest. It is the first GHS data on older people to allow the community care changes of<p><p>the early 1990s to be taken into account. The 1994/5 data were collected too soon after the changes for their impact to be<p><p>observed. In addition, for the first time, the 1998/9 GHS contains questions that identify people needing regular daily help,<p><p>who constitute some of the most dependent older people in the community.

<p><p><p>The analysis presented here was undertaken in the context of a study of future demand for long-term care for older people<p><p>by the Personal Social Services Research Unit. A similar analysis of patterns of care was conducted using the 1994/5 GHS<p><p>(Wittenberg et al. 1998). The study therefore provides an opportunity to compare trends in patterns of care between<p><p>1994/5 and 1998/9.