Suitability of social services for the elderly: analysis of degree of fit between needs and services

Abstract

Increased life expectancy coupled with decreased birth rates has led to a notable aging of the population. In the social care sector, resources for the older persons should be allocated by means of objective instruments that ensure an appropriate fit between older people's needs and the characteristics of the services. This paper analyzes the appropriacy of actual assignments of resources in a sample of 632 older users of social services, evaluating the degree of fit between these assignments and those made by a Decision Making Model (DMM) which is strictly based on an objective assessment of user's needs and characteristics. The results indicate that biopsychosocial variables included as predictors in the DMM are appropriate for ensuring that the needs of the older persons are met and resources are optimized. However, the current assignments of users to services cannot be explained by relying solely on these variables, suggesting that the allocation of users to services may be conditioned by factors that are different from those covered by the DMM.