As in other countries, the family is the main provider of care for older people in Slovenia. However, with the development of social home care in the 1990s, an important addition to informal care has been introduced. The first Slovenian representative survey of social home care users (2013) has been used to assess the care arrangements among users of social home care and the impact of both need across activities of daily living and the availability of informal care networks on care arrangements. The level of functional impairment (an indicator of need) and household composition (an indicator of availability of crucial elements of an informal care network) have proved to be indicative of the levels of usage of particular care arrangements; distinguishing between informal care only, formal care only, and mixed care.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32976477
Social homecare is important for older people, as it enables them to remain in their own homes during worsening health, thus relieving the burden on institutional facilities such as homes for the elderly or nursing homes and hospitals. Method. A representative survey of social homecare users was employed to assess determinants of the scope of social homecare in Slovenia. Multiple regression analysis was used to evaluate determinants defined by Andersen's behavioral model that affect the scope of social homecare. This study showed that data on the individual level, as opposed to data on an aggregated level, show different determinants of social homecare utilization. Moreover, the results showed that social homecare is especially important in two circumstances: when older people have a high level of need and when they do not have access to informal care networks. Contextual factors had a moderate effect on the scope of social homecare, which shows universal access to the latter at the individual level.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32963677