Community care for demented and non-demented elderly people: a comparison study of financial burden, service use, and unmet needs in family supporters.

OBJECTIVE

To measure and compare perceived financial burden, use of services, and perceived unmet service needs of supporters of demented and non-demented elderly people.

DESIGN

Comparison study of age and sex matched demented and non-demented elderly people and their supporters.

SETTING

25 primary health care teams in Dundee.

SUBJECTS

114 community resident elderly (age over 65) people with dementia, 114 age and sex matched comparators, and the main informal supporter of each elderly person.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Carers' perceptions of financial impact of looking after an old person, service use (from a list of locally available services), unmet service needs, and needs for three types of generic service (help with supervision, housework, or personal care).

RESULTS

Financial impact was low, except for extra household expense in the dementia group. There was significantly greater use of mainstream domiciliary and day care services in the dementia group. Dementia was nevertheless associated with a high level of unmet need, mainly for more mainstream support and help with supervision of the elderly person.

CONCLUSION

Supervisory care for demented elderly people should be further developed within an expanded domiciliary service to meet supporters needs.