Asking The Elder What She Needs Leads to Good Results
A recent study was published in Health Affairs, Home-Based Care Program Reduces Disability And Promotes Aging In Place. The abstract explains:
The Community Aging in Place, Advancing Better Living for Elders (CAPABLE) program, funded by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, aims to reduce the impact of disability among low-income older adults by addressing individual capacities and the home environment. The program, described in this innovation profile, uses an interprofessional team (an occupational therapist, a registered nurse, and a handyman) to help participants achieve goals they set. For example, it provides assistive devices and makes home repairs and modifications that enable participants to navigate their homes more easily and safely. In the period 2012–15, a demonstration project enrolled 281 adults ages sixty-five and older who were dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid and who had difficulty performing activities of daily living (ADLs). After completing the five-month program, 75 percent of participants had improved their performance of ADLs. Participants had difficulty with an average of 3.9 out of 8.0 ADLs at baseline, compared to 2.0 after five months. Symptoms of depression and the ability to perform instrumental ADLs such as shopping and managing medications also improved. Health systems are testing CAPABLE on a larger scale. The program has the potential to improve older adults’ ability to age in place.
A subscription is required to access the full article. A Kaiser Health News (KHN) story about the study, Study Finds Benefits When Seniors Call Shots To Help Them explains “A federally funded project that researchers say has potential to promote aging in place began by asking low-income seniors with disabilities how their lives at home could be better … At the end of the program, 75 percent of participants were able to perform more daily activities than they could before and symptoms of depression also improved, the researchers said in the journal Health Affairs.”
According to the KHN article, the study is based on two ideas: “environment influences health” and elders “should set goals to improve their health.” So asking the elder what the elder needs, and then providing the right services leads to a good result, it seems. “Instead of dictating health goals to the patients, the therapist’s first two visits were about listening to what the seniors thought their biggest problems were and creating plans on how to tackle them.” The positive impact continued after the study ended, according to one of the researchers interviewed for the article, who noted environment plays a big role as a barrier to aging in place.