Older people wish to be consulted on home care

Housework, transport and better health
services are among the things that would most improve the quality
of home care, according to older people.

Nearly
150 older people in Manchester were asked what would make for
quality services at home “in an imaginary world” where they could
have anything without having to pay.

Their
answers included regular carers and advance notification when there
is a change of carer, written details about the services a carer
can provide and some flexibility in the contract.

They
said they wanted to be respected and listened to by home care
workers, and would like cheaper rental phones, intercom systems and
pendant alarms.

Transport should be affordable,
accessible, non-jolting and “ordinary”, and a better health service
should include money for a 24-hour carer and a doctor-chemist
prescription service.

One
participant suggested that the views of older people should be
regularly sought: “Social services should come out twice a year to
check that you are happy with the services – social services are
too remote.”

Professor Norma Raynes, director
of the Institute for Health and Social Care Research, who carried
out the study, said that older people see the components of quality
home care as interlinked and “joined up”.

“When
people talk about quality in home care services they don’t
differentiate what they are from how they are delivered,” she said.
“They don’t differentiate between what comes into their home and
what enables them to get out.

“Quality in home care will have
arrived when it will reflect what older people want,” she
added.

The
project was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.