The costs and benefits of using private housing as the ‘home base’ for care for older people : secondary data analysis

This paper outlines research by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute University of Sydney Research Centre into the relationships between the costs and benefits of using private housing as the ‘home base’ for care for older people. Residential care requires relocation to the institution but provides both housing and care to older persons, whereas home-based care means that care is brought to the older person within their own home. The absence of economic evaluations of care at home for older people in Australia is significant, given that policy and care arrangements vary substantially from country to country. To date, cost-benefit studies associated with home care for older people have used inconsistent terminology and inconsistent methodologies. They have not viewed costs and benefits from similar perspectives or considered the same dependent or independent variables. As a consequence, the results have at times been contradictory. One significant limitation of prior research is its focus on either care or accommodation, without analysing the relationship between the two. The present project aims to overcome these limitations by considering the impact of potentially significant variables on the costs and benefits of home care in a context that will allow assessment of the interrelationships between housing, care and personal characteristics.