Most reablement care packages reduced the need for long-term support.
- In both Bridgend and RCT, most completed reablement care packages prevented the need for further long-term support (67.5% in Bridgend and 62.7% in RCT).
- In Bridgend, 14.0% of care packages reduced the need for support, while 11.6% maintained the existing level of support. In contrast, in RCT, no care packages led to reduced support, and 37.2% resulted in maintaining the current level of support. This may be due to differences in local reporting practices or other local factors, which would need further investigation to understand the reasons behind these variations.
- These findings align with the primary goal of reablement care: helping individuals regain or maintain independence at home. However, we could not identify the specific conditions that led to reablement care from the available data, limiting our ability to assess individual needs or evaluate the long-term effectiveness of the care packages beyond the recorded outcomes.
- It is also important to note that data on long-term care and support plans provided by local authorities was unavailable for this study, and it is unclear whether some individuals might have independently pursued private care following their reablement package.
Figure 2: Percentage of completed reablement care packages by the relative level of support needs post-reablement care in Bridgend and RCT. (Note: * indicates approximate values due to masking of small numbers)
Step changes in support needs following reablement care varied by demographics.
- In Bridgend, reablement care was more effective in reducing the need for further support among younger age groups and those without multimorbidity. Specifically, 77.3% of individuals under 75 and 77.3% of those without multimorbidity no longer needed long-term support, compared to 63.5% of individuals aged 75 and over and 65.5% of those with multimorbidity. This suggests that reablement care tends to be less effective in removing the need for long-term support among older adults and individuals in poorer health.
- Despite this, even for older individuals and those with multimorbidity, the majority still experienced a reduction in their need for long-term support after reablement care (79.8% for those aged 75 and over and 80.4% for those with multimorbidity).
- There was little variation in the changes in support needs based on sex or deprivation after reablement care. However, due to the small sample size in RCT, further analysis by demographics was not possible.