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Home Care for the elderly and disabled in foreign countries

The study aims to identify how European countries have reformed their home help and home care systems in order to achieve: High quality care which meets increasingly diversified and individualised needs, Effective and efficient services, Stronger user orientations in the provision of care, optimal balance of responsibility between formal and informal care, best way of attracting and retaining home care workers.

SPRU research team

External collaborators

  • Tine Rostgaard, National Centre for Social Research, Denmark (co-ordinator)
  • Cristiano Gori, Personal Social Services Research Unit, London School of Economics
  • Teppo Kröger, Department of Social Sciences, University of University of Jyväskylä, Finland
  • August Österle, Institute for Social Policy, Vienna University of Economics, Austria
  • Marta Szebehely, Department of Social Work, University of Stockholm, Sweden
  • Virpi Timonen, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
  • Mia Vabø, NOVA, Oslo, Norway

Project summary

Aims

The study aimed to identify how European countries had reformed their home help and home care systems in order to achieve:

  • High quality care which met increasingly diversified and individualised needs
  • Effective and efficient services
  • Stronger user orientations in the provision of care
  • An optimal balance of responsibility between formal and informal care
  • The best way of attracting and retaining home care workers.

Key areas of interest included:

  • Drivers/pressures for reform
  • Boundaries of home care
  • Arrangements for organisation, funding, provision and regulation of home care
  • Home care workforce
  • Quality assessment
  • Impacts on users>

Methodology

Each participating researcher contributed a report on developments in her/his own country, written to a common structure, but emphasising particular unique national features where relevant. All participating researchers contributed to a concluding comparative chapter.

The May 2012 special issue of the journal Health and Social Care in the Community entitled 'Reforming Home Care in Ageing Societies' contains papers from the project.

Policy and practice aims

The study was commissioned by the French Ministry of Health and Sports specifically to inform proposed changes in the organisation, regulation and delivery of home care services in France at the time.

Additional information

Protocol
Funder

Ministry of Health and Sport France

Duration

January 2010 - March 2011