DETERMINING THE APPROPRIATE LEVEL OF CARE - AN ANALYSIS OF FACTORS AFFECTING THE STAFFS OVERALL NEEDS ASSESSMENTS, USING DATA COLLECTED THROUGH THE ASIM MONITORING-SYSTEM

For the purpose of evaluating the validity of the staffs overall needs assessment in terms of the 'appropriate level of care' as a measure o f resource needs - with particular emphasis on the need for institutio nal resources - an analysis was made concerning the relation of the as sessment to various other factors. In the analysis, we used data colle cted in a survey undertaken in Solna municipality on November 1, 1991 according to the ASIM monitoring system. It was found by multiple regr ession analysis, that the 'appropriate level of care' was closely rela ted to the client's degree of disability, age, and actual level of car e. On the other hand, variables describing the client's social situati on - marital status, single living, informal social support, standard and accessibility of housing - bore no relation to the assessment of n eed for institutional care. Chiefly because of the close relation to t he actual level of care it was concluded that the staffs overall asses sment of 'appropriate level of care' should be used with a degree of c aution as measure of the need for institutional resources, since it wo uld tend to overrate that need. A more systematic needs assessment pro cedure is required in order to provide the municipal authorities with unbiased estimates of institutional resource needs.