Services are a bar to life at home

Many people with dementia enter residential care because of the way services are organised, not their condition, unpublished research has found.

The study of people with dementia living in extra-care housing, by supported housing provider Housing 21, found that half died in hospital or a care home.

But dementia itself was not the reason for the admissions, the research says. Instead, it cites a lack of integration between health and social care, the structure of long-term care funding and the treatment of challenging behaviour.

Unveiling some of the research at last week’s Laing and Buisson annual extra care housing conference, Housing 21 chief executive Melinda Phillips said the fact that councils capped home care packages at a certain level “mitigates against our ability to support people to die at home”.

 

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