An evaluation of a respite care unit for elderly people with dementia: framework and some results.
This paper offers a comprehensive framework for service evaluation relevant to a new respite care unit, and reports some results of its application. On existing evidence the planning assumption of a preventive effect of respite care, in avoiding admission to institutional care, is argued to be unjustifiable. The results indicate that this unit had a high non-attendance and fall-out rate, and no incentives to co-operate with alternative services or to operate efficiently. Broad estimates of cost parities revealed that attenders at the unit sacrificed considerable amounts of alternative forms of care.
Melzer
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West Lambeth Health Authority, London SE1 7EH.
D000368:Aged; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003625:Data Collection; D003704:Dementia; D004739:England; D016352:Group Homes; D006801:Humans; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012144:Respite Care / Q000458:organization & administration*