Purpose: This study determined the psychometric properties of a variety of anxiety measures administered to older adults receiving home care services. Design and Methods: Data were collected from 66 adults aged 65 years and older who were receiving home care services. Participants completed self-report and clinician-rated measures of anxiety and…

Purpose: The Veterans Affairs or VA health care system is in the process of significantly expanding home health care (HOC) nationwide. We describe VA HHC use in 2003 for all VA HHC users from 2002; we examine whether VA utilization across a broad spectrum of services differed for a sample of VA HHC users and their propensity-score-matched…

Describes use of photography as method embedded within ethnographic investigation of rural home care for older adults. Illustrates how photography fostered data generation, elicited participants' stories, and showed patterns of rural aging. Notes that analysis of photographic data pooled with interview and observational data facilitated in-depth…

Describes the Southeast-Bayview Mental Health Center Geriatric Services Unit, which provides a comprehensive mental health program for the elderly of San Francisco. The program emphasis is on crisis intervention, with reliance on home visits and follow-up services as well as screening and referral. (JAC)

Presents data from diverse sources that lead to conclusion that jobs of paraprofessional home care workers who provide ongoing care for older clients would be more intrinsically rewarding and offer better conditions for high-quality care if workers had more contact with supervisors and peers, more information about clients and care plans, clearer…

Discusses critical factors complicating efforts to assure quality of in-home care for people with chronic disabilities: client and provider characteristics, fiscal restraints, inadequate regulation, lack of quality assurance methods, and lack of coherent social policy for long-term care. Identifies three areas of policy to be addressed if efforts…

Describes Block Nurse Program, in which existing resources and agencies are used to help keep elderly persons in their own homes with case management by public health nurses in community. Discusses external evaluation of program which documented that the neighborhood long-term care delivery model kept older adults in their homes at low cost and…

Estimates the proportion of service and nonservice expenditures within a state aging department. In Massachusetts the ratio was $0.70 to $0.30 (service to nonservice) both for the state's Home Care Programs and for all activities. (JAC)

Eligibility assessment systems for community long-term care vary widely across programs funded by states and Medicaid and in proposals to expand federal funding. Improved equity and efficiency will require better specification of eligibility criteria, timing and setting of assessments, language of assessment items, training of assessors,…

Estimated effect of variety of factors on the utilization of home help among the elderly in Sweden using a sample (n=421) of people 75 years and older. Results indicated physical functioning (instrumental activities of daily living) and living alone were most important. (Author/ABL)

Assesses applied relevance of research on home care, reviewing literature on predictors of use of home care services, experience of receiving home care, and efficacy studies. Notes that efficacy studies have not concluded that home care is less costly or better for quality of life of older adults when compared with institutional care. (Author/NB)

Describes a geropsychiatric outreach team that evaluated and treated psychiatrically impaired elderly (N=66) in their home. Initial diagnostic reports and three-month follow-up interviews suggested that most patients had improved or stabilized and were able to remain in the community. Intervention strategies and patient characteristics are…

Notes that community-based care for chronic illness requires continuum of care. Identifies three aspects of organization of long-term care that are important in maintaining continuum: availability, accessibility, and acceptability. Illustrates each category by data from Missouri to demonstrate potential problems in each of three areas that can…

Compared the informal and formal caregiving of 269 functionally impaired elderly people residing on 53 Israeli kibbutzim. Results agreed with those from earlier studies which suggested that the availability of formal resources was not accompanied by withdrawal of informal supports. (Author/BHK)

Discusses the Swedish experience in which the official old-age care policy has been to substitute home care for institutional care. Found some substitution of the two forms of long-term care which took place from 1965-75, but thereafter the use of long-term care institutions and home care remained stable or contracted. (Author/ABL)