Abstract
The goals of the study were to describe the clients of home care and their care providers; to determine the competencies required to provide their care; to determine the costs of the formal care providers per client diagnoses; and to determine the burden of care for a randomly selected sample of informal care providers. Forty-nine percent of the 773 clients who participated in the study were age 70 and older and 63% were female. Forty-one percent of clients lived with a spouse but 24% lived alone. The most frequent primary diagnoses (reason for admission to program) were arthritis, stroke, fractures and sepsis. Discipline experts determined the competencies required to provide the care. Variations in costs across the same diagnosis were related to the category of providers assigned and to the frequency of provision of care strategies. The constant dependency of the client was perceived as the greatest stressor for informal providers.
Résumé
Les objectifs de l’étude comprenaient: l’établissement du profil des clients des soins à domicile, la détermination des compétences nécessaires à la prestation des soins, l’évaluation des coûts des interventions et du fardeau sur les soignants du milieu. Quarante-neuf pour cent des 773 clients étaient âgés de 70 ans et plus et 63 % étaient des femmes. Quarante et un pour cent vivaient avec conjoint, alors que 24 % vivaient seuls. Les plus courants diagnostics primaires, motivant l’admission au programme, sont l’arthrite, les accidents cérébraux vasculaires, les fractures et la septicité. Les compétences nécessaires à la mise en oeuvre de stratégie de soins ont été déterminées par des spécialistes dans leur domaine. Les variations des coûts pour un même diagnostic est en fonction de la fréquence des soins et de la catégorie des fournisseurs. La dépendance constante du client était perçue comme le facteur de stress le plus important chez les soignants du milieu.
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