The design and implementation of a restorative care model for home care.
OBJECTIVE
The increasing demand for geriatric home-based care makes it timely to examine how the existing system can become most effective and efficient in promoting the functional outcomes of older patients.


METHODS
A multidisciplinary work group identified home care agency policies, misconceptions of older adults and their caregivers, and practice patterns of nurses, therapists, and home health aides that can impede patients' progress toward functional independence. This article describes the process that one home care agency used to remove these obstacles.


CONCLUSIONS
The work group developed and implemented a restorative model of care that integrates the medical treatments for acute disease processes and the personal care and rehabilitative interventions directed toward chronic disabilities, to improve the functional outcomes of older adults receiving home care.
Baker
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Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. dorothy.baker@yale.edu
Gottschalk
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Eng
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Weber
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Tinetti
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ME
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D019090:Case Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003237:Connecticut; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D017146:Models, Organizational; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012046:Rehabilitation / Q000458:organization & administration*