Aging & Social Change: Ninth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Aging in place is the goal of home care service in long-term care, and independence enables older adults to stay at their home. The purpose of this study is to build a home-based self-reliance support care model, which provides goal-oriented training in activities of daily living (ADLs) and Instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) on personalized needs-based home care plan, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the model. First, a survey of care attendants, care users, and family caregivers was conducted to explore their needs toward independence at home. A self-reliance support care model for home care services was then designed. Second, an experimental design was used to implement and to evaluate of the self-reliance home care model. The experimental group participated in the self-reliant care model, including 20 care attendants, and 33 pairs of home care users and family caregivers. The control group received the usual home care, with participants of 20 care attendants and 40 pairs of home care users and family caregivers from another home care agency. The generalized estimating equation (GEE) was used for analysis. The self-reliance home care model improved the occupational satisfaction and achievement for home care attendants, improved the mutual support, independence, and quality of life among the users, and reduced the stress of the users and family care. Self-reliant support care can improves independence, quality of home service, and service satisfaction. It is recommended to encourage a self-reliance support care model be applied in long-term care by policy incentives.