Department of Primary Care & Mental Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
NIHR Applied Research Collaborations North West Coast, Liverpool, UK.
Dementia (London). 2024 May;23(4):550-566. doi: 10.1177/14713012241237673. Epub 2024 Mar 1.
People with dementia and unpaid carers need to go through a social care or carers needs assessment to access and receive subsidised or fully-funded social care. With no previous evidence, this qualitative study aimed to provide insights into the access to, experiences of receiving and conducting social care or carers needs assessments, and access to social care.
Unpaid carers of people with dementia and professionals conducting social care or carers needs assessment living or working in England were interviewed remotely about their experiences between April and August 2023. Topic guides were co-produced with two unpaid carers, and both were supported to code anonymised transcripts. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.
Twenty-seven unpaid carers ( = 21) and professionals ( = 6) participated. Four themes were generated: (1) Issues with accessing needs assessments, not the process; (2) Knowledge of needs assessments and the health and social care system; (3) Expectations of unpaid carers; and (4) Post-assessment unmet needs. The most prominent barriers unpaid carers and their relatives with dementia encountered were awareness of and access to needs assessment. Unpaid carers were mostly unaware of the existence and entitlement to a needs assessment, and sometimes realised they had participated in one without their knowledge. Professionals described the pressures on their time and the lack of financial resources within services.
To facilitate improved access to dementia care and support for carers, the pathway to accessing needs assessments needs to be clearer, with better integration and communication between health and social care.
痴呆症患者和无薪照顾者需要通过社会护理或照顾者需求评估，才能获得和接受补贴或全额资助的社会护理。由于缺乏先前的证据，本定性研究旨在深入了解获得、接受和进行社会护理或照顾者需求评估以及获得社会护理的途径。
2023 年 4 月至 8 月期间，通过远程访谈，对居住或工作在英格兰的痴呆症患者的无薪照顾者和进行社会护理或照顾者需求评估的专业人员进行了有关其经历的访谈。主题指南是与两名无薪照顾者共同制定的，并且对这两名无薪照顾者提供了匿名转录内容的编码支持。使用主题分析来分析数据。
共有 27 名无薪照顾者（=21）和 6 名专业人员参与了研究。生成了四个主题：（1）获取需求评估存在问题，而不是评估过程；（2）对需求评估和卫生及社会保健系统的了解；（3）对无薪照顾者的期望；以及（4）评估后未满足的需求。无薪照顾者及其患有痴呆症的亲属遇到的最突出障碍是对需求评估的认识和获取途径。无薪照顾者大多不知道需求评估的存在和他们的权利，有时甚至是在不知情的情况下参与了评估。专业人员描述了他们时间上的压力以及服务中缺乏资金资源。
为了促进更好地获得痴呆症护理和照顾者支持，需要更明确地了解获得需求评估的途径，并在卫生和社会保健之间实现更好的整合和沟通。
