A Longitudinal Study of Admissions to Residential and Nursing Home Care Following the Community Care Reforms

<p>In the autumn of 1995, the PSSRU began a longitudinal survey of elderly people admitted to residential and nursing home care with local authority financial support. The survey was commissioned by the Department of Health, initially to help to improve the Standard Spending Assessment (SSA) formulae for allocating funds to local authorities for the support of elderly people. Information was collected from social workers in 18 local authorities in England about the circumstances of admission and the level of dependency for 2544 elderly people admitted during a three-month period from mid-October 1995. Follow-up studies have been conducted six and 18 months after admission, and further follow-ups are planned for 30 and 42 months after admission.

<p><p><p>In the follow-ups, managers of homes are being asked to provide information on mortality or the current location of the elderly people, and, for those still resident in the home, information on dependency corresponding to that collected on admission. If an elderly person has moved to another home, the same information is being requested from the new home. A separate exercise is being conducted to follow up those elderly people who returned to a private household or who were discharged to hospital, in which information is being collected from social workers.

<p><p><p>This paper contains tables of results from the initial survey of admissions and from the follow-up six months after admission, including some information about those admitted to a private household or who were discharged to hospital. The paper was drafted for use in preparing a presentation for the 1997 British Society of Gerontology Annual Conference. Approximately 4 per cent of the individuals included in the survey were recorded as having assets which exceeded the capital limit for public funding, and these cases have been excluded from the tables. Individuals admitted from another residential or nursing home have been excluded from the tables of results from the six month follow-up.

<p><p><p>For the remainder, information on location or mortality at six months was obtained for 84 per cent; of these, 64 per cent were still in the original home and 25 per cent had died. For elderly people who had left residential or nursing home care, the main reasons recorded for their departure were: their acceptance of the home; changes in their functional abilities; and the ability of the home to provide the appropriate care, such as for those exhibiting behavioural problems associated with dementia.