Home care evolution in alberta: how have palliative clients fared?

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Gerontology
• Palliative Care

Background:

• Home care services are crucial for managing chronic and terminal illnesses.
• Understanding trends in palliative home care is essential for health system planning.
• Health system reforms can impact the delivery and accessibility of home care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare palliative and non-palliative home care clients, services, and providers.
• To describe changes in palliative home care over a decade of health system reform (1991/92-2000/01).

Main Methods:

• Analysis of complete, individual-anonymous data from Alberta's home care database.
• Examination of trends over a 10-year period (1991/92-2000/01).

Main Results:

• Palliative clients constituted 7.0% of all home care clients over the decade, with regional variations (2.2%-9.6%).
• The number of palliative clients more than doubled, but grew slower than short-term clients.
• Home support aides and personal care were the most common providers and services.
• Average care hours for palliative clients pre-death increased from 40.9 to 87.9 hours.

Conclusions:

• Despite increased hours, the limited home care for dying individuals raises concerns.
• Potential for increased informal caregiver burden exists.
• Overreliance on hospitals for end-of-life care may be occurring.