Support program may cut formal LTC use

The program provides telephone support for any paid or unpaid caregivers who want help, and it also offers access to in-person support groups. The people the caregivers are helping do not have to have any specific formal diagnosis.

The researchers came up with the acute medical care cost impact estimate by looking at how much formal care the people with dementia used before the caregivers began calling the support program and how much they used after the caregivers began calling.

When caregivers received telephone support, they were much less likely to call an ambulance or take people with the dementia to the emergency room, and the people with dementia were much less likely to end up staying in the hospital, the researchers report.

The researchers came up with the LTC savings estimate by asking unpaid caregivers who participated in a survey how much more or less likely they were to use paid LTC services after using the support program.

The researchers did not have any data on actual changes in formal LTC service use, and they didn’t have any figures on how changes in reported acute medical care use correlated with health care outcomes.

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