It is predicted that, in coming years and in many countries, the proportion of people needing long-term care (LTC) will increase substantially. To meet the social and economic challenges of responding to this increased demand for care, health and care welfare regimes need to focus on the social care services that matter most to people, and deliver these services effectively and efficiently. In this study we want to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of non-institutional LTC (e.g. home care) for older adults and their informal carers in Austria, England and Finland.
To measure outcomes in LTC and enable consistent cross-country comparison, there is a need for a common, well-validated measure. EXCELC is using the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT), which has both a service user and carer measure specifically designed to be suitable for use with people receiving long-term care services. The measures incorporate multiple dimensions of quality of life (QoL), including occupation, social contact, control, being fed, clean and safe, and have proven validity and reliability in England.
EXCELC is being overseen by:
- Professor Julien Forder, Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU), University of Kent at Canterbury, UK
- Professor Ismo Linnosmaa, Centre for Health and Social Economics, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
- Ms Juliette Malley, PSSRU, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
- Dr Birgit Trukeschitz, Research Institute for Economics of Ageing, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
and is being supported by an international advisory group.
NORFACE (New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe) has launched Welfare State Futures, a programme of innovative research designed to ask, and answer, fundamental questions about the design, delivery and experience of welfare in the 21st century. A part of the Austrian research is funded by the Austrian Research Funds (FWF) and FSW (Fonds Soziales Wien), and a part of the Finnish research is funded by National Institute for Health and Welfare.