'Caring for the whole person: home care for older people which promotes well-being and choice' 

by Charles Patmore and Alison McNulty.

Full text available by clicking the link on the above title.
 

Enquiries about printed copies (110 pages):  Contact via cpconsult@btinternet.com

The above publication is the fullest, most useful account from the three-part research project on flexible person-centred home care for older people, which was funded through the Department of Health Research Programme at the Social Policy Research Unit at York University, from 2001 till early 2005.

The research explored what factors promoted a flexible, person-centred approach to home care, in tune with values later expressed in the 2005 Green Paper, Independence, Well-being and Choice. This publication presents detailed findings from the crucial, final stage of the research and draws conclusions from the project overall. It presents practical strategies for developing a service ethos which promotes older people's well-being and encourages choice - and which should also assist transition to individual budgets. A supplementary chapter, added in 2007, highlights implications for Personal Care Budgets, the individualised budgets introduced by Putting People First in December 2007.

For links to other publications from this project, scroll down to the end of the page.

Summaries of the above can be accessed on the website of the Social Policy Research Unit at York University through clicking on the following links.

• 'Flexible, Person-centred Home Care for Older People' , Research Works series, Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, August 2005.  

 

• Executive Summary to the project's final report to the Department of Health, March 2005.

 

Key themes are also summarised in two articles on the website of Community Care magazine:

• 'Power of the purchaser’, Community Care, 6-12 October, 2005

 

• ‘That little bit extra’, Community Care, 13-19 October, 2005

 

Articles which relate this research to implementation of the 2006 White Paper, 'Our Health, Our Care, Our Say', and to individual budgets:

•  'A visit from your flexible friend', Guardian, 1 March, 2006

 

• 'Well-being and choice for older people - how can commissioners promote this?' , Commissioning e-Book, Care Services Improvement Partnership, 2006.

 

• 'Bringing well-being and choice into everyday home care' , Working with Older People, September 2006, Volume 10, Issue 3.

Also, links are available on this website to ideas for training and development methods for promoting flexible, person-centred care, which draw on this research.