How has the Personalisation of Social Care Impacted on Service Users with Dementia?

Milosevic, Sarah, Evans, Simon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2919-8167, Brooker, Dawn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8636-5147 and Upton, Dominic (2013) How has the Personalisation of Social Care Impacted on Service Users with Dementia? In: Research Focus Day: People, Policy and Practice, 23 October 2013, University of Worcester. (Unpublished)

Abstract

The personalisation agenda is a government initiative aimed at transforming adult social care through giving service users choice and control over the care they receive. A key part of this agenda is the provision of direct payments; cash payments made to individuals eligible for social care services which allow them to manage their own care. Research suggests that direct payments can enable people with dementia to stay in their own home for longer and experience greater choice, flexibility and an improved social life. However very few people with dementia currently access direct payments. The objective of this research was to explore the social care experiences of people with dementia in relation to their access to and use of direct payments. 26 semi-structured interviews were conducted with people with dementia in receipt of social care services in the community, and their carers and social workers, and focus groups held with two community social work teams. It was found that direct payments tended to be seen as a fall-back option, for example as the only alternative to residential care, or as a solution to problems with traditional services. Direct payments appeared to afford particular benefits to people with dementia in terms of flexibility, continuity of care and access to local facilities. It is therefore important that this group are enabled to access direct payments. The second (ongoing) phase of this research comprises the design and pilot testing of an intervention aimed at improving access to direct payments by people with dementia.

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