Community Care: The Effects of Low Levels of Service Use

Abstract

The Social Policy Research Centre was commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services in 1995 to undertake an investigation of the impact of community support services for frail aged people who receive only a small amount of formal assistance from publicly supported agencies. The study was intended to document the outcomes of providing small amounts of basic help with housekeeping tasks amongst a group of frail older clients who wished to remain in their own home. The research relied on a retrospective methodology which enabled a comparison to be made of the outcomes of support for those people with low level service needs who had received assistance from formal community services with a similar group of elderly people who do not receive such assistance.