Levels of provision and of dependency in residential homes for the elderly: implications for planning.

Two surveys of dependency among elderly residents in local authority homes are reported. Dependency levels are compared in the light of the large difference in the amount of accommodation provided by the two authorities. Dependency levels are shown to be unrelated to level of provision. The authors suggest that this finding contradicts assumptions frequently made in planning institutional provision for the elderly. Reducing the number of places in residential care, providing specialist homes or establishing nursing homes may not therefore have the intended effect of changing the dependency mix in institutional care.