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Residential care for the long term mentally ill in Canterbury: options, costs and funding sources
T Green1, A Hornblow, I Sheerin
1Health Research Services, Christchurch.
Aims:
To obtain estimates of the costs of the main options of care for the long term mentally ill and to compare different approaches to costing.
Method:
Resources used by samples of residents in extended hospital care (EC, n = 43), community staffed houses (SH, n = 30), boarding houses (BH, n = 43) and group homes (GH, n = 100) were identified and costed using both the expenditure and total resource concepts of cost estimation.
Results:
Using the expenditure concept of cost SH was the most expensive at $773 per person per week, compared to $700 for EC, $189 for BH and $155 for GH. Using the resource cost approach, valuing all resources used, SH and EC were similar at $790, compared to $184 and $169 for BH and GH care. Nursing was the most costly input with striking differences between nursing costs in the four modes of care.
Conclusions:
The results indicate a gap in the spectrum of residential care options, between high and low cost care. Future funding arrangements will require improved linkage between needs assessment and resource provision.