Good quality care of the elderly

The purpose of this study is to get a clearer picture of what the elderly, care workers and assessment officers perceive to be quality in elderly care.
The elderly, care workers and assessment officers all agree that showing respect for the elderly is of greatest importance. For the elderly and home-care workers it is moreover important that the elderly are cared for by the same care workers. The elderly also stressed the importance of cleaning and experienced care workers. In many areas the assessment officers set different priorities than the elderly and care workers. For instance, the assessment officers believe that formal education of care workers is more important than work experience.
The report is based on a new questionnaire survey including 1,380 telephone interviews and face-to-face interviews with people aged 65 or above, assessment officers and care workers from home care and accommodated housing in 16 municipalities.
The report was commissioned by the Ministry of Social Welfare as the second part of a three-year project on quality in care of the elderly launched in January 2005. The first part of the project, Begreber om kvalitet i ældreplejen. Temaer, roller og relationer (report on concepts of quality in care for the elderly, only available in Danish), was published previously this year by SFI – The Danish National Centre for Social Research.