title: An update on the pilot trial of consumer-directed care for older persons in Australia.
abstract: The Australian Government has commenced a two-year pilot of consumer-directed care (CDC) across 500 home and community aged care packages. This policy paper discusses the model being trialled in Australia in light of the UK's Individual Budgets' Pilot Programme and the USA's Cash and Counselling Demonstration. The results of these randomised controlled studies suggest that older people vary in their preferences for consumer direction and that many find the administrative tasks of implementing CDC programs difficult. The relatively restricted model of CDC that the Australian Government is trialling may minimise the problems encountered in the overseas programs, but does not allow consumers to hire family or friends which they preferred to do overseas.
authors.affiliation: Dementia Collaborative Research Centre, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. lf.low@unsw.edu.au
authors.forename: Lee-Fay
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Low
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chilko
authors.forename: Meredith
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gresham
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barter
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brodaty
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001315:Australia; D003256:Community Participation; D006078:Government Programs; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic