Ohio Department of Aging
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Publisher: Scripps Gerontology Center, Miami University
Published Date: August 2006
Introduction
This project, supported by the U.S. Administration on Aging, was undertaken cooperatively by the Ohio Department of Aging, the Scripps Gerontology Center, Miami University, and three area agencies on aging in Ohio, between 2001 and 2005. The project’s primary objective was to design and test an outcome-focused system for quality monitoring of caregiver-support services based largely on input from caregivers themselves.
To develop the quality monitoring system, the project began by conducting focus groups comprised of caregivers, recipients of care and service providers to better understand quality from a range of stakeholders involved in the service delivery system. The ideas and perspectives of the focus groups were supplemented by a literature review as well as interviews with aging service program administrators. Once formalized, the quality monitoring system was tested in three area agencies on aging in Ohio, representing a mix of urban and rural areas as well as a diversity of approaches to administering services under the National Family Caregivers Support Program (NFCSP).
The project emphasizes that the essential components of an outcome-focused quality monitoring system differ markedly from more traditional systems that lend themselves to more easily measured structural information, such as: licensure, hours of in-service training, and number of service units delivered. While structural and process-oriented information is necessary, it is not sufficient. A solid quality system for caregiver-support services must focus on the caregivers themselves.
It follows that an optimal system of assessing and monitoring caregiver-support services should consistently put the ideas, observations and concerns of caregivers at its center and use them in pursuit of the continual improvement and constant fine-tuning that 2 true quality demands. Those ideas, observations and concerns constitute the essence of this work on quality monitoring of caregiver support services.
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Ohio Department of Aging