How much is enough? Perspectives of care recipients and professionals on the sufficiency of in-home care

Purpose of the Study. This study sought to increase knowledge about the imp act of rater role on the assessment of in-home supportive care. The authors compared the perspectives of care recipients and professionals on one aspe ct of the broad concept of quality of care in home care-the sufficiency of the amount of care provided by informal and formal caregivers. Design land Method: Sufficiency of home care was assessed through concurrent elderly pe rsons' self-report through telephone interview and nurse clinical report ba sed on in-home interviews with the elder. Care was assessed in terms of the sufficiency of the amount of informal and formal assistance received to me et functional dependency needs. Statistical analyses compared the ratings, of elder and professional. Results: Professional ratings of the sufficiency of care were significantly lower than those of the elderly care recipients . From the perspective of both care recipients and professionals, sufficien cy of care wash significantly related to coresidence of elder and caregiver , and to caregiver health. Implications: Consistent with previous literatur e, rater role was found to influence the assessment of the sufficiency of i n-home care. Researchers and providers should recognize that, care recipien t and professional ratings are not interchangeable.