Age-Bias in Staff Appraisals of Brain Injury Service Provision?

Abstract

"Are older clients underserved?" this question is increasingly considered an issue in health care and social work. In service provision to citizens with brain injuries the problem is rarely discussed, although the vast majority of persons with brain injury are older adults. The present study investigated the relation between age of citizens with brain injury and staff estimation of unsatisfied needs and relevance of service provision. Local community health care professionals and social workers evaluated service needs and relevance of care of 411 adults with brain injury in three Danish municipalities. Results indicate that professionals in service provision judge older citizens with brain injury as having fewer unsatisfied needs for service than younger citizens. They also rated the service provided to older citizens more relevant than the service to younger citizens. The age difference in need-evaluation is highly significant, and cannot be accounted for by confounding variables (e.g. cause of injury or time since injury). Only for younger citizens was the degree of care burden associated with staff appraisal of unsatisfied needs, which could be an indication of age-bias in staff evaluation of service provision.