Costs and benefits of housing as the 'home base' for older people

Summary

This project sought to determine the costs and benefits of using private housing as the home base for care for older people. There are whole-of-government costs when not using housing as the home base for care for older people. These include the cost of premature admission to residential aged care and the use of acute, sub-acute and primary care services due to preventable injuries within the home. This study found that the financial costs of home based care are primarily related to tenure arrangements and secondarily to the type of support provided. Home ownership, rather than public rental, was associated with lower costs of care. Providing in-home formal or informal care for older adults is less costly than providing institutionalised care. The current high rate of home ownership by older persons facilitates the provision of in-home care with those in public housing and living with families being the most likely to enter residential care.


Project Number: 60313
Research Theme: Health_Ageing_and_Disability
Project Leader: Bridge, Catherine
Funding Year: 2005
Research Centre: Sydney

Research and Policy Bulletin

Research & Policy Bulletin

Issue 132: Home ownership reduces the cost of home-based care among old adults

The research examined the costs and benefits of providing in-home care to older people in contrast to residential care and evaluated the interrelationships between housing and care variables in determining the in-home care costs.

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More Information

Download now Final Report: No. 115: The costs and benefits of using private housing as the 'home base' for care for older people: secondary data analysis
606 KB PDF Document

Download now Positioning Paper: No. 094: The costs and benefits of using private housing as the 'home base' for care for older people: a systematic literature review
1.2 MB PDF Document

Download now Research and Policy Bulletin: Issue 132: Home ownership reduces the cost of home-based care among old adults
303 KB PDF Document

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