O’Connor, CMC;
Poulos, RG;
Sharma, A;
Preti, C;
Reynolds, NL;
Rowlands, AC;
Flakelar, K;
... Poulos, CJ; + view all
(2023)
An Australian aged care home for people subject to homelessness: health, wellbeing and cost–benefit.
BMC Geriatrics
, 23
, Article 253. 10.1186/s12877-023-03920-3.
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Abstract
Background: Older people subject to homelessness face many challenges including poor health status, geriatric syndromes, and depression, coupled with barriers in accessing health and aged care services. Many are in need of formal aged care at a younger age than the general population, yet, in Australia, specialised aged-care services to support this vulnerable cohort are limited. Methods: This study was an evaluation of a new purpose-built aged care home for people with high care needs and who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Over the first 12 months post-admission, the study examined: (1) changes in residents’ physical, mental, psychological and social health, and (2) the costs incurred by the study cohort, including any cost benefit derived. Results: Thirty-five residents enrolled in the study between March 2020 – April 2021. At admission, almost half of residents were within the range for dementia, the majority were frail, at high risk for falls, and had scores indicative of depression. Over time, linear mixed-effect models showed significant improvement in personal wellbeing scores, with clinically significant improvements in overall health related quality of life. Levels of physical functional independence, frailty, and global cognition were stable, but cognitive functional ability declined over time. Comparison of 12 month pre- and post- admission cost utility data for a smaller cohort (n = 13) for whom complete data were available, suggested an average per resident saving of approximately AU$32,000, while the QALY indicators remained stable post-admission. Conclusion: While this was a small study with no control group, these preliminary positive outcomes add to the growing body of evidence that supports the need for dedicated services to support older people subject to homelessness.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | An Australian aged care home for people subject to homelessness: health, wellbeing and cost–benefit |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s12877-023-03920-3 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-023-03920-3 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
| Keywords: | Aged care, Cost–benefit, Health, Homelessness, Service evaluation, Trauma informed care, Wellbeing, Quality of Life, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Australia, Ill-Housed Persons, Humans, Aged, Australasian People, Homes for the Aged |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Culture, Communication and Media |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10214885 |
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