Search results

This paper describes a study that explored older people's views and priorities on what made for quality in home care services, ways of accessing these and enabling them to become part of mainstream service monitoring. It took place in a city in the north of England, in 2000. The research was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Older people's definitions of a quality home care service go outside the service boundaries that are set by social service departments who define the quality specifications for home care services and commission them. Older people had a joined‐up perspective of what contributes to quality in a home care service including, for example, in their definitions of a quality service: access to transport to get out of the house, aids, adaptations and health care. They emphasised the importance of domestic help, which has been reported in other studies. To obtain information on their definitions of a quality service older people were offered the choice of a home‐based interview or participation in a focus group. Following the collection of the data on quality a round table discussion was arranged. The purpose of this was to explore how older people's views on the quality of home care services could become part of routine monitoring, to shape further development and assist in commissioning. Older people who had participated in the first part of the study were invited to attend this, as were local commissioners, service providers and elected members with executive responsibility for older people's services. The recommendations of this round table are discussed.

This article is the first of a series on older people's mental health services (OPMH Focus 2008‐09). It sets out some of the challenges facing commissioners, and uses recommendations from a recent inquiry to outline possible commissioning objectives.

In this article we report findings from a small scale user‐controlled study which explores involvement and engagement in terms of the legacy of the National Service Framework for Older People (NSFOP) and the new opportunities that are opening up around community well‐being and active citizenship. A key finding of the study is that, when participating in implementation of a major policy initiative, older people's reference groups and forums require good support: practical help with administrative tasks and more professionalised support to help develop members' skills as activists and campaigners. We distill what this means for practice in a commissioning framework which can be used to specify support services that may be provided to older people's groups by external organisations such as the voluntary and community sector. Here, involvement and engagement are understood as a dynamic relationship between three stakeholder groups (older people, the statutory sector, and the voluntary and community sector). We pinpoint likely tensions in these relationships and how they might be addressed.

The National Institute of Mental Health England (NIMHE) appointed a Fellow in Ageing and Mental Health to take on a national leadership role for a three‐year period from 2003 to 2006. Starting from a position where the NIMHE website could only address older adult issues under social exclusion, a group of committed individuals in a range of organisations came together and a regional and national work programme in older people's mental health was developed. This paper offers reflections on the issues raised during the Fellowship in respect of older people's mental health services and this Fellowship model of leadership.

This study aims to illustrate the viability of the life course paradigm (LCP), which is increasingly used by social and behavioral scientists to study a wide variety of phenomena, as a framework for studying the transformational role of service consumption in improving consumer well-being in later life.

The LCP is used to develop a life course model for studying the effects of service consumption on older people’s well-being. Previous research related to the consumption of specific types of services (financial and healthcare) is integrated within the multi-theoretical LCP to suggest relevant model variables and derive a set of propositions for illustrating the effects of service consumption on older adults’ well-being.

The research presented in this study shows how efforts to study the effects of service consumption on older people’s well-being can be improved by using the LCP, helps understand the onset and changes in service consumption patterns and illustrates an innovative way to study the role of services in promoting older consumer welfare.

By applying the principles and theoretical perspectives of the LCP, this study contributes to recent transformative service research efforts to better understand the impact of service consumption on people’s lives and the transformational role of services and service providers in improving consumer and societal welfare.

The life expectancy of people with learning disabilities has increased substantially. Services for older people with learning disabilities are provided by various sectors and practitioners (generic health and social care, or specialist learning disability or old age). The literature suggests that practitioners do not feel well‐equipped to support people with learning disabilities as they grow older, and older people's services do not always have the opportunity to share experiences and skills. This paper highlights areas such as dementia support, where the intersection between services is not clear, and explores what might help practitioners to meet the needs of people with learning disabilities as they grow older.

Many social services departments have successfully developed services which meet older people's physical survival needs so that they can continue living in their own homes despite serious disabilities. An emerging priority is to support the morale and quality of life of the same individuals.Assisted by the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU), a team of social services managers conducted a programme of interviews designed to obtain the views of very old, frail home care clients about their services and their lives in general. A few interviewees expressed very low morale and this seemed to reduce substantially their ratings of satisfaction with the help they received. While it is well established that disability and isolation are linked to depression in older people, it is rare that service providers systematically address these problems. Some practical strategies for this purpose are proposed as a result of this survey.

Care management has developed in a variety of forms. This diary study explores differences in the approach taken to care management in three distinct social service settings: community‐based older people's teams, hospital social work teams also for older people and community‐based teams for adults with mental health problems. Conclusions are drawn both for social care and for health services developing case management for people with long‐term conditions.

In this article we consider community well‐being and new approaches to reinvigorating partnership working for older people's services. In particular, we focus on improving transport for older people. We draw on findings from a series of public consultations, group discussions and interviews with older people in 10 purposively selected localities in England. Although there was great diversity in the issues raised by older people on the subject of transport, both across and between the sites, we point to a number of core analytical themes which could assist commissioners in developing a citizens' framework designed to address this traditionally ‘wicked’ issue.

The purpose of this paper is to explore current provision of targeted social care services for the growing populations of Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) older people in England and Wales.

This was a mixed study. Following a review of the policy and research literature, 12 semi-structured interviews were undertaken in 2013/2014. Most participants were recruited from BAME policy and service provider organisations and organisations focusing on older people.

There is some evidence that BAME voluntary organisations are experiencing disproportionately greater funding cuts than mainstream voluntary service providers: moreover some mainstream providers reported reducing services targeted at BAME older people, while others expressed the view that choices for BAME older people are likely to become more limited following recent health and equalities policy changes.

Practitioners should contribute to data collection about protected characteristics, such as race/ethnicity to establish if BAME older people’s needs are being assessed equitably, whether access to care and support is easy; and how market-shaping at local levels can ensure a range of providers.

This study provides an overview of voluntary sector provision for the growing numbers of BAME older people in need of care and support that should be useful to practitioners and service commissioners.