Care Management and Health Care of Older People: The Darlington Community Care Project

<p>This is an evaluation of an innovative service designed to enable frail elderly people, who would otherwise need long-stay hospital care, to remain in their own homes. Care managers with devolved budgets were located in a Geriatric Multi Disciplinary Team. They were responsible for coordinating packages of care and allocating the time of home care assistants, multi-purpose workers who assisted health care staff and undertook domestic and personal care tasks. The service spanned the health and social care divide.

<p><p><p>The book examines the process of care management, the use of multi-purpose workers as recommended in the UK Report on Community Care by Sir Roy Griffiths, the outcomes of care for clients and carers and the costs of care. Elderly people receiving the project service had a higher quality of life and there was no evidence of greater stress for their carers, compared with a group of elderly people in long-stay hospital care. The cost of care was lower for those receiving the innovative service compared with those in hospital. The characteristics of those clients who could be most cost-effectively supported by such a service are identified.

<p><p><p>In addition, the book examines the development of the service after its original project phase is examined and the relevance of these findings for the future development of care management is discussed in the light of lessons from the UK and elsewhere.

<p><p><p>Link to <a href=http://www.ashgate.com>Ashgate Publishing</a>