Applied gerontological research of home care service to aged people associates the provision of the service with maintenance of independence, relief of collateral stress, prevention of unnecessary institutionalization and higher contentment. Although these beneficial effects are related to home care, the service is generally regarded as ancillary requiring professional supervision of both the client and the home aide. After an examination of the assumptions underlying this viewpoint and preliminary studies of home care, the Institute initiated an innovative home care project in which 60 clients requesting only home help were given the service without professional supervision. The cases were monitored for four months and during this period no client crises occurred as a result of the absence of professional supervision. Thus, initial evidence suggests the provision of home aide service to selected elderly clients without professional supervision has no deleterious effects. The concluding section of the paper presents a comprehensive experimental design to test the effects of home aide service with and without professional supervision on both the client and the home aide. (Author)