How people over 65 experience SDS
- Written by: — Senior Policy and Outcomes Officer and Lucy Mulvagh, Director of Policy and Communications, the ALLIANCE
- Published: 25th January 2018
Lucy and Colin discuss the main findings from the ALLIANCE’s research into older people’s experience of Self-directed Support.
Today the ALLIANCE published its latest briefing on our research into people’s experience of Self-directed Support (SDS). This time we have chosen to focus on people over the age of 65 who require or access social care.
It is encouraging that the majority of older participants in our research on the whole had a positive experience of SDS. Unlike the Scottish Government’s research, which found that the majority of older people were on SDS option 3 (receiving Local Authority services), participants in the ALLIANCE’s study were much more likely to be on option 1 (direct payments).
Looking across the stages of the SDS process could explain people over 65’s perception and understanding of SDS. Participants within this age group were slightly more likely than others to have had a discussion with their social worker about the different SDS options and more likely to state that they were “very informed” about SDS than the other age groups. Almost three quarters of older people said that the information they received helped them to make an informed decision over which option they wanted. This is far higher than the average participant in our research who said that the information helped them choose. The result of this increased awareness of SDS is that a higher proportion of older participants in our research chose SDS options 1 or 2, which offer the most flexibility for support.
However, this does not necessarily translate to older people having sufficient support to meet their needs. Donald Macaskill, the Chief Executive of Scottish Care, who kindly wrote the foreword to our report, highlights that:
“More fundamentally this report states that it is extremely concerning that half of people over 65 said they did not have enough hours in a day to meet their requirements. Older age necessitates a different approach, a need to develop systems of assessment, guidance and information that are sensitive to the altered nature of decision-making which happens as we get older“.
As the ALLIANCE begins planning our next round of research into people’s experiences of SDS, we hope to facilitate more opportunities to unpack the restrictions and limitations of SDS as a mechanism for enabling older people to meet their daily needs and outcomes and realise their rights.
Find the People over 65 Experiences of SDS briefing below along with all our other SDS reports.
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