An analysis of non-institutional long-term care planning methods for care in the home

This article provides a comparative analysis of planning methods used by health planners and other policy analysts to determine the need for home health care, personal care, and home maintenance services. The analysis focuses primarily on approaches used to estimate the population risk, but also examines techniques used to determine the service requirements of that population. The article reviews two approaches which use indicators of demand (i.e., population case rates and referral rates) and a third approach which relies on health status measures (e.g., functional capacity, existence of chronic conditions, ability to perform activities of daily living). The author concludes that a definitive methodology has not yet been developed and makes suggestions for future research.