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Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
ERIC Number: EJ725186
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Aug-1
Pages: 12
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0016-9013
EISSN: N/A
Easing the Burden of Caregiving: The Impact of Consumer Direction on Primary Informal Caregivers in Arkansas
Foster, Leslie; Brown, Randall; Phillips, Barbara; Carlson, Barbara Lepidus
Gerontologist, v45 n4 p474 Aug 2005
Purpose: We assess the effect of consumer-directed care on the emotional, physical, and financial well-being of the primary informal caregivers of the Medicaid beneficiaries who voluntarily joined Arkansas's Cash and Counseling demonstration. Design and Methods: The demonstration randomly assigned beneficiaries to a program in which they could direct their own disability-related supportive services (the treatment group) or rely on traditional agency services (the control group). We constructed outcome measures from telephone interviews with 1,433 caregivers who provided beneficiaries with the most unpaid assistance at baseline, and we used multivariate regression models to estimate program effects. Interviews occurred between February 2000 and April 2002, 10 months after beneficiaries' random assignment. Results: At follow-up, treatment group caregivers provided fewer hours of assistance than did their control group counterparts, on average, and they reported better emotional, physical, and financial well-being. Implications: Permitting interested Medicaid beneficiaries to direct their own in-home supportive services reduces burden on informal care givers, which may help reduce beneficiaries' nursing home use.
Gerontological Society of America, 1030 15th Street, NW, Suite 250, Washington, DC 20005-1503. Web site: http://www.gerontologyjournals.org.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Arkansas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A