Assessing the community care needs of the functionally impaired elderly: the gerontological worker's perspective

A survey study of home care workers (N = 91) in three federally funded home care programs sheds light on the perceived community care and support service needs of the functionally impaired elderly. Findings also serve to identify those variables which may influence the accuracy and/or legitimacy of needs assessment data, especially when such information is collected from the perspective of the gerontological community worker. Results indicate that professional home care staff are able to more clearly define a finite set of high priority home-delivered services for the elderly. On the other hand, paraprofessional personnel as a group do not agree as easily on a specific set of community support services meriting top priority. Their diffused notion of priority expressed itself in responses regressing to the mean. As a source of targeted needs assessment data, paraprofessional staff may reflect a lesser capacity to selectively set priorities. On the other hand, their responses seemingly reflect a weaker tie to disciplinary biases. The implications of these study data are discussed in terms of the process and methodology of community need assessment for the elderly and the target groups to which program planners will want to seek evaluations of service need in the future.