Services provided by informal and formal caregivers to seniors in residential continuing care

New approaches to residential continuing care for frail seniors include a s hift toward more social care models that involve hiring multiskilled worker s and expectations of family involvement as partners in care. Recall and st ylized time-use methods were used to assess the types of tasks and amounts of service provided by family and staff caregivers in three models of care. Findings are that family members provide about 30 per cent of on-site serv ices to residents. Family members spend most time in enhancing well-being, while staff spend most time in housework. Patterns of care differ across Ad ult Family Living, Assisted Living and Dementia Care settings. Sustainabili ty of these patterns of care depends upon adequacy of staffing and reasonab le expectations about family resources.