title: Community care for the Elderly: Needs and Service Use Study (CENSUS): Who receives home care packages and what are the outcomes?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Investigate factors associated with waiting times for home care packages and outcomes for care recipients and carers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Analyses of data collected every four months for 12 months from 55 community-dwelling older adults eligible for government-subsidised packaged care and their carers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty of fifty-five participants were offered a package; they waited from one to 237 days. Baseline quality of life was higher for those offered a package than those not. Baseline care needs and unmet needs, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and cognitive decline did not predict offers. Package receipt compared to non-package receipt was associated with decreased carer burden over time but did not affect levels of unmet care needs, care needs or quality of life.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Being offered a home care package was not based on waiting time or unmet care needs. Reforms should include a transparent system of wait listing and prioritisation.
authors.affiliation: Dementia Collaborative Research Centre - Assessment and Better Care, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Lee-Fay
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Low
authors.affiliation: Dementia Collaborative Research Centre - Assessment and Better Care, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.affiliation: HammondCare, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Meredith
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gresham
authors.affiliation: Dementia Collaborative Research Centre - Assessment and Better Care, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.|Academic Department for Old Age Psychiatry, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brodaty
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001315:Australia; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D018579:Patient Selection; D011788:Quality of Life; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: aged; health service for the aged; health service need and demand; home care service; needs assessment.