Social Home Care Research Articles

Analysis of the national structure of care provided to older people in Slovenia

Ageing in place has for many years been at the forefront of political goals for care provision for older people in Europe. The organization of care in terms of the national governing structure must therefore be continually observed to better understand the care actually offered and then used by older people. In this study, we examined the organization of social home care and institutional care across municipalities and administrative units in terms of what is offered to older people as formal care. Variation across municipalities and administrative units is observed with explorative cluster analysis and analysis of means of key dependent variables across clusters to better understand the variability in the care offered to older people in those municipalities and administrative units. The results show that while social home care is temporally available across several clusters of municipalities, and the affordability of social home care is also stable across clusters of municipalities, there are still municipalities where social home care has a limited time availability and municipalities where the out-of-pocket contribution to social home care delivery is nearly the twice the average of such contributions. In terms of institutional care, one can find administrative units with either a deficit or a surplus of placements of such care available.

Building research capacity and capability to enhance the quality of living and dying addressing advancing frailty through integrated care: the ALLIANCE partnership.

Frailty affects around 10% of people aged over 65 years, increasing to 65% of those over 90 years. This number is increasing. Older people with frailty are projected to become the largest future users of care services as they near end of life. Living with frailty increases vulnerability to sudden deterioration, fluctuating capacity and mortality risk. This leads to complex needs, requiring integrated care, and an approach orientated towards living with, as well as dying from, advancing frailty. However, accessing care in a timely manner can be difficult. To develop a sustainable, cross-sectoral partnership to: identify priorities to improve integrated care delivery, and care transitions, for older people with advancing frailty develop organisations in which to conduct research submit study proposal(s) for funding. To establish Partnership infrastructure and identify key contacts across palliative and end-of-life care. To understand the strengths, weaknesses, barriers and enablers of research readiness and clinical services for people with advancing frailty. To support provider services to become research ready. To establish Partnership-wide research questions and develop research proposals. The Partnership brought together experts, by profession or experience (n = 244), across specialist palliative and geriatric care and local government, to improve the delivery of integrated care for older people with advancing frailty as they near end of life. Members included older people with frailty, unpaid carers, health, social and voluntary care professionals and academics, across the East Midlands, South East England and South West London. A survey of key contacts (n = 76) mapped and scoped the Partnership's strengths, weaknesses, barriers and enablers of services for people with advancing frailty, and service providers' research readiness. Forty-six key contacts responded. Most worked in the East Midlands (59%), in health care (70%) and in the community (58%). Survey findings were used to develop a service framework and to create a short list of potential research questions. Questions were refined and prioritised through coproduction with frail older people (n = 21), unpaid carer representatives (n = 7), health, social and voluntary care professionals (n = 11) and care home representatives (n = 3). The question chosen for bid development focused on ensuring what matters most to older people with frailty informs service development. This bid is currently being written. Partnership members were also supported to develop research readiness and enhance meaningful patient and public involvement by the development and curation of multiple resources. This work was challenging. The Partnership enabled the collaboration of diverse stakeholders and fostered opportunities to improve end-of-life care for older people with advancing frailty. However, the fluidity of the workforce, lack of finance to buy-out key contacts' time, limited service integration across sectors, lack of common language and concepts across sectors, need to build research understanding and readiness, and minimal evidence of engaging frail older people approaching end of life in determining service provision and research, made achieving the initial goals overly ambitious. Nevertheless, the Partnership developed a service framework for older people living and dying with advancing frailty, and is currently coproducing a clinically applied, translational research proposal. This article presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme as award number NIHR135262.

In Celebration of WHO International Day of Older Person : How to Stay Young Symposium

The Geriatric Unit at Dar Al Shifa Hospital in Kuwait is announcing a geriatric symposium. The symposium is in Celebration of WHO International Day of Older Person. The theme of the conference is “ How to Stay Young “. It will take a place on Sat Oct 5th , 2024 at DASH-Auditorium. The conference will cover the following topics Longevity issues Dementia & Alzheimer’s Preventive strategies in older people How to prevent cardiovascular diseases Nutrition, Frailty, Sarcopenia Prevention of Osteoporosis Use of genetic testing New modalities in prevention and Management of diabetes New modalities in prevention and management of dyslipidemia Parkinson disease new modalities of treatment and prevention We will bring together a network of key players, renowned scientists and professionals representing all the following f ields of gerontology and geriatrics: Research and education, social services, nursing or care homes, relevant public and administrative authorities as well as any other discipline dealing with the elderly or their quality of life. The speakers are from Kuwait , GCC national and Europe in addition to Thailand, Spain, USA The symposium can be carried at the auditorium of our hospital

”Det har inte bara att göra med teknik i sig, utan det är även ett sätt att arbeta”

“It's not just about the technology itself; it's also a way of working” - An Explorative Study of social care staff’s perspectives on welfare technology in the field of disability. The purpose of this qualitative study is to gain a better understanding of how the implementation of a welfare technology (WT) may affect the daily work of unit managers and social care staff in social care homes. It also aims to explore how residents' ability to participate, exercise self-determination, and be independent in their daily activities may be affected by this WT, as perceived by staff. The study focuses on one WT Boet, a digital support tool, created for care professionals and residents with intellectual disabilities and/or autism. Boet is a WT that comprises a staff application and an individual application for residents. The study is based on the experiences of care professionals working in social care homes in three Swedish municipalities covered by the Act (1993:387) on Support and Services for Certain Disabled People (LSS). Over a period of six months in 2023, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 care staff and three unit managers. The analysis highlights trust as a central theme and identifies three aspects that influence professional discretion: transparency, shifts in power, and safety. In conclusion, it can be assumed that the level of trust among staff plays a crucial role in establishing the framework for professional discretion concerning digitalisation, WT, and its additional working methods. This study indicates several different shifts in the professionals' discretion that may require trust in one's ability, the residents, the WT, management, and organisation.

Between surveillance and self‐surveillance: What institutionalised girls in Ciudad Juárez (reveal that they) know about sexuality

AbstractWe describe how girls aged 7 to 12 from social care homes in Ciudad Juárez (Mexico) talk about sexuality in workshops that we led, focusing on how mechanisms of surveillance and self‐surveillance operate in a context in which the research framework opens up new norms for socially acceptable ways of talking about sexuality. We analysed data emerging from 13 drawings that answered the question ‘What is sexuality?’

Integrated Health and Social Home Care Services in Catalonia: Professionals' Perception of its Implementation, Barriers, and Facilitators.

This study aimed to assess the implementation of integrated social and health home care services (HCS) offered by the Government of Catalonia, and to identify the main barriers and facilitators of integrated HCS. Analysis of the degree of implementation of integrated social and health HCS perceived by social care services (SCS) and primary health care centers (PHCs) between December 2020 and June 2021 in two phases. First, the perception of integration by social workers within SCS and PHCs was assessed using a screening questionnaire. Then, SCS in counties with the highest integration scores received a customized questionnaire for an in-depth assessment. A total of 105 (100%) SCS and 94 (25%) PHCs answered the screening questionnaire, and 48 (45.7%) SCS received a customized questionnaire. The most frequent barrier identified was the lack of shared protocols, with the most frequent facilitator being the recognition of the importance of integrated HCS. Our study showed that the degree of implementation of integrated health and social HCS offered by the Government of Catalonia was perceived as low. The identified barriers and facilitators can be used to facilitate such implementation. Further studies should include professionals other than social workers in PHC assessments.

<b>The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence, Psychological Compatibility, and Social Problem-Solving Abilities among a Sample of Residents in a Social Care Home</b>

يهدف هذا البحث الى : التعرف على علاقة الذكاء الوجداني بالتوافق النفسي لدى عينة من المقيمين بدار الرعاية الاجتماعية وقدرته على حل المشكلات الاجتماعية ,وقد اشتمل البحث على المحاور التالية : المقدمة – مشكلة البحث وأهميته – مصطلحات البحث – الإطار النظري للبحث – مفهوم التوافق النفسي – مفهوم القدرة على حل المشكلات الاجتماعية – الرعاية الاجتماعية للأحداث – الدراسات السابقة – إجراءات البحث – نتائج البحث , وقد توصل البحث إلى مجموعة من النتائج أهمها : وجود علاقة موجبة دالة إحصائيا بين الذكاء الوجداني ومهارات الحياة , , وان الذكاء الوجداني يسهم بنسبة ( 6% ) في التنبوء بمهارات الحياة .

Changes and interruptions during COVID-19: caregivers of people with brain health challenges-A qualitative analysis.

The social and economic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted people's physical and mental health. The majority of care for individuals with brain health challenges, including dementia and mental illness, is provided by informal family caregivers. The "Coping with Loneliness, Isolation and COVID-19" (CLIC) Global Caregiver Survey 2020 received responses from over 5,000 caregivers across 50 countries of people living with enduring brain and/or physical health conditions. This study examined English-speaking caregivers of people with brain health challenges (dementia and mental health conditions) descriptions of changes and interruptions in their ability to provide care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected as part of the large-scale CLIC Global Caregiver Survey. Data from over 900 English language respondents were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic content analysis. A multidisciplinary team of clinicians and health policy practitioners participated in team-based qualitative analyses. The majority of respondents were from the United States (71% USA), female (83%) and care providers to people living with dementia (81%). Respondents reported concerns about their loved one's physical and mental health, the limited access to other caregiving sources and the limited opportunities to maintain personal wellbeing. Practical, social, psychological and emotional impacts affected their ability to offer care. There was clear evidence that the disruption to health and social care services-institutions, day care and home services impacted the ability to offer care. The pandemic may be seen as a catastrophic "event" that negatively impacted lives and livelihoods. A number of the social determinants of health were negatively impacted for the caregivers surveyed during this prolonged period. Caring for caregivers and supportive health and social care interventions are required to maintain the wellbeing of this informal workforce. This study represents the largest, cross-country survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on caregivers of people with brain health challenges to date; serving as an important resource for support agencies and to inform policy.

Needs and experiences of homecare workers when supporting people to live at home at the end of life: a rapid review

BackgroundSocial homecare workers provide essential care to those living at home at the end of life. In the context of a service experiencing difficulties in attracting and retaining staff, we...

VISION OF NURSES WORKING. VISION WITH DISABLED CHILDREN ABOUT THEIR PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE

The nurse's work with children with disabilities requires narrowly profiled knowledge to ensure adequate medical and health care for children in the process of deinstitutionalization. Purpose: The purpose of the research is to establish the attitudes of nurses regarding the increase of their professional competence for working with children with disabilities in the process of deinstitutionalization. Methods: An anonymous survey was conducted of 109 nurses working in medical and social care homes (HMSCC) in the cities of Burgas and Stara Zagora. For this purpose, a questionnaire consisting of 34 questions of open and closed type was developed. Results: The survey found 68% of respondents believed that a nurse should have a continuous drive to learn new knowledge about caring for children with disabilities. The respondents (75%) indicate that dealing with emergency situations is a mandatory professional competence for those working with children with disabilities, another 55% consider that the ability to emotionally assess the child's condition is very important when performing their professional activity. The respondents considered that a personal contribution of the nurse (outside of professional duties) is necessary for the improvement of care for children with disabilities [t(107) = 5.814; p-level < 0.001]. Conclusion: The survey found a positive attitude of the respondents to participate in postgraduate studies. The respondents express a desire to become involved as trainers of parents to provide real knowledge and skills in order to deal with and solve the child's health problems that arise at home.

Medical and sociological research of persons elderly and senior age receiving medical and social assistance in stationary conditions and at home

BACKGROUND: Assessment of the need for medical and social and long-term care for elderly and senile people serves as the basis for improving organizational approaches to improve the quality of medical and social services provided.
 AIMS: Determination of the needs of elderly and senile people in the provision of medical and social assistance.
 MATERIALS AND METHODS: For the study, a representative selective set of 400 elderly respondents is determined, of which 280 (70.0%) respondents lived at home (I group) and 120 (30.0%) under the stationary conditions of the gerontological center (II group). The study was conducted by interviewing based on a specially designed questionnaire and Loneliness by Svetlana G. Korchagina. Statistical processing of the received data was carried out using the Microsoft Office Excel 2013 and statistical package Statistica 12.
 RESULTS: The average age of the respondents was 72.97.96 years (p 0.05). The presence of polymorbidity was noted by every third respondent (33.0%), of which 23 diseases had 26.0%, 4 or more 7.0%, with a prevalence in the structure of the incidence of diseases of the cardiovascular system. 53.0% of people are in need for medical and social home care. 31.0% of people were satisfied with medical care, 41.0% of people consider social assistance available. A high prevalence of the state of loneliness in elderly and senile people was established: 94.0% in group I, 99.0% in group II, with a progressive increase in the rate as the age of the elderly increases.
 CONCLUSIONS: With increasing age, the subjective self-assessment of health worsens, associated with an increase in polymorbidity (mainly age-associated diseases) and the presence of disability; the decrease in the possibility of self-care increases the need for the elderly for assistance and care. The high prevalence of self-assessment of loneliness among the elderly and senile causes an increased need for older people in psycho-corrective measures.

Disability-Specific Sporting Competitions and the UN CRPD: Segregation as Inclusion?

Since the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was created, segregation of persons with disabilities is no longer allowed. Separate schools, sheltered workshops, and isolated social care homes impede inclusion and must be banned. Sport is a remarkable exception to this general principle. The CRPD explicitly states that persons with disabilities should have the opportunity to organize, develop, and participate in disability-specific sporting activities. This contribution—focusing on the Paralympics and Special Olympics—examines why the CRPD allows and encourages disability-specific sporting competitions, despite (or perhaps due to) its radical choice for inclusion. Beyond that, this contribution asks the obvious follow-up question: if disability-specific competitions are allowed, how can the criteria for participation be determined in a manner consistent with the CRPD? The CRPD opposes a medical approach to disability, yet that approach is often used in selection criteria. Although this contribution primarily focuses on sports, the impact is wider: it raises questions on inclusion and how to assess disability.

Initial Insight into the Environmental Awareness of Employees in the Catering Sector in the City of Rybnik, Silesia

Sustainable food systems have the potential to protect humans and planet health. Green public procurement (GPP) is a tool for the sustainable transformation. In Poland, the share of GPP is extremely low. As part of the StratKIT project, a survey-based research study was carried out in the city of Rybnik (Silesia Region). The aim of this paper is to diagnose the level of awareness in the field of sustainable development of the project stakeholders, and to propose further sustainable actions related to GPP in Poland. The survey was conducted in social care homes and two primary schools. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 24 software. The results show that the level of education has an impact on the assessment of the environment, and that the place of residency interferes with the level of environmental, organic and nutritional knowledge. Correlational analysis showed no statistically significant relationships between age, level of education, place of residence and willingness to introduce action connected to GPP (e.g., organic food). In conclusion, there is a need for an appropriate educational program for the public procurement and catering services (PPCS) sector, teaching about advantages of GPP for the food systems in connection to sustainable agriculture, consumption and climate actions.

Social Model Hospice Residential Care Homes: Whom Do They Really Serve?

Most prefer to die at home, but the Medicare Hospice Benefit does not cover custodial care, making it difficult for terminally ill patients with housing insecurity and/or caregiver instability to access hospice care at home. To examine the characteristics of patients who received end-of-life care in community-run, residential care homes (RCHs) operating under the social model hospice. A retrospective chart review of 500 residents who were admitted to one of three RCHs in Upstate New York over a 15-year period (2004-2019). Patients served by the RCHs included 318 (63.6%) women and 182 (36.4%) men aged 34-101 (M = 77.8). The majority (94.9%) were Caucasian and most had cancer diagnoses (71.6%). Prior to admission, most (93%) patients resided in a private residence, and nearly half (47%) lived alone, but most (81.7%) had full- or part-time caregivers. Nearly all patients were admitted either directly from a hospital (47.5%) or private home (47.2%). Over half (52%) were admitted to RCHs within a month of hospice enrollment, and 20.1% enrolled concurrent with admission. While the average length of stay was 21days, 50% died within 10days of admission. Community-run RCHs represent a unique approach for improving access to hospice home care for patients with home insecurity and/or caregiver instability, yet most patients had prior caregiver coverage and were admitted from a hospital or home setting, suggesting there is a need for community care settings for patients unable to remain at home in the final weeks or days prior to death.

Health Care Decisions in Social Care Settings: General Regulation and Interpretation in Cpt’s Jurisprudence


 
 
 
 The Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman Treatment is a body of the Council of Europe that organises visits to places of detention such as social care homes in order to assess how persons deprived of their liberty are treated. This means that in practice people are not free to leave the institution and are therefore de facto deprived of liberty. In such situations, people with disabilities are particularly vulnerable and have limited capacity to make decisions about medical treatment and care. As the number of such persons increases, and in order to ensure protection under international law, the results of the empirical study indicate the need to provide immediate assistance to residents in safeguarding their rights to self-determination or private autonomy and legal interests in making health care decisions in social care settings. For example, involving the resident in consenting to treatment or establishing a decision-making assessment procedure.
 
 
 

Quality of Services Provided by Social Care Centres for the Elderly in Latvia: Challenges and Possible Solutions

Latvia faces the challenges of an ageing society, which increases the demand for long-term social care services at municipal level. The aim of the work was to address the problematic issue related to the quality assurance and control of the care service for people of retirement age and the improvement of this quality control process in SCCs in Latvian municipalities. In addition, an analysis of the administrative data of social care homes in Latvia was carried out. The authors have concluded that currently, the arrival at an objective assessment of SCC service quality is impossible. The content of this work allows to argue that quality indicators (QI) should be integrated within SCC quality assessment, thus providing several advantages in terms of service planning and quality assessment, and the use of data for high quantity research.

Counteracting the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. Selected problems and initiatives for homeless people and for residents of social assistance houses

he COVID-19 pandemic affected both developed and developing countries, but its effects primarily affected the poor and people at risk of social and professional exclusion, e.g. people with disabilities, especially those staying in nursing homes, refugees and migrants, and finally people in crisis homelessness. The aim of the study is to discuss selected problems and examples of good practices implemented in Poland during the pandemic with regard to two target groups, i.e. people in a homelessness crisis and residents of social care homes, i.e. groups most exposed to the effects of SARS-CoV-2, including due to age, health problems and greater susceptibility to disease.

Dental services market in Poland and its impact on the health decisions of patients and doctors.

The aim of the paper is to verify the impact of the current dental services market in Poland on the society decisions regarding dental treatment as well as to assess the differences in the valuation of commercial and public dental services. Study Design: In the first step 1,444 subjects including children, adults and elderly were subjected to a questionnaire survey to characterise them in terms of sex, age, place of residence and level of education, type of dental treatment used including services privately funded and reimbursed by the National Health Fund and the reasons of his/her decisions. In the second step we compared the results of the survey to the average price of commercial and reimbursed procedures to verified a possible correlations between them. The research tool was a questionnaire survey by the author. The questionnaires were distributed among randomly selected kindergartens, schools, workplaces, senior clubs, social care homes and random passers-by in the streets. Average prices of dental procedures were based on price lists of 12 commercial offices and National Health Fund's contract conditions for the reimbursed services. Regardless of the age, Poles are far more likely to use private dental care. The level of education affects the form of financing of the dental treatment of children. There is a large disproportion between the revenues of private and public dental offices providing the same dental services.

Predictors of runaway behavior in adolescent Saudi girls

The phenomenon of girls running away from home is an increasingly widespread social challenge confronted by families, welfare agencies, and governmental organizations in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia. This study compared runaway girls and a control group on various measures and investigated the predictors of runaway behavior among Saudi adolescent girls. A sample of young adolescent girls (N = 77, aged between 14 and 21 years) included a purposive sample of runaways (N = 33), comprised of all the girls living in a social care home in Jeddah who had left their homes at least once, and a control group (N = 44) selected via cluster sampling. The participants were assessed using a demographic questionnaire, the Family Cohesion Scale, and the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale. Inter-group differences were apparent and differences were also found based on the circumplex model. The results of the stepwise discriminant analysis showed six variables (family cohesion, age, education, number of sisters, number of brothers, and birth order) that remained and explained 80.82% of group membership variation. Lack of family cohesion, along with several demographic variables, can lead to complicated emotional attitudes among adolescent girls which trigger runaway behavior. Although runaway youth services must continue to stay focused on safety and short-term residential care, the underlying causal factors must be identified as well.

Образователна подкрепа на деца в резидентна грижа в условията на електронно обучение (приложни аспекти)

The changed conditions for the educational process` implementation in a state of an emergency outside the school institution raise a number of questions regarding the educational opportunities for the children raised and brought up in residential services, ie. Out of the biological family. The purpose of this study is to identify the resources, organization, and opportunities for effective e-learning for children and students raised in residential services and attending public kindergartens and schools. Precisely, these are specialized institutions – Social care homes for children deprived of parental care, and the so-called alternative residential care – family-type accommodation centers for non-disabled children and transitional housing. The selected target group differentiates between outlines the difficulties in the e-learning process, both for children and adolescents in residential care and for the professionals who support them and are not prepared for such a situation.