'Lives would be a lot worse without care'

Those dependant on home help here were also the most likely in Northern Ireland to say that they would not be able to manage at all without the help they get from their care worker.

The findings are contained in a new survey of home care service users carried out by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) and designed to focus on the service users' experiences of domiciliary care

Health officals found patients in the Western Trust were significantly more likely to say they were absolutely dependant on home help and also to report positive experiences.

Amongst the reports findings were that users in the Western HSC Trust (90 per cent) were more likely than those in the South Eastern HSC Trust (82 per cent) to say that they always looked forward to their care worker(s)' visits.

And users in the Southern (89 per cent) and Western (91 per cent) HSC Trusts were significantly more likely to say that their lives would be a lot worse if they did not get help from their care worker(s) than users in the Belfast (81 per cent) and South Eastern (82 per cent) HSC Trusts.

Not only did those reliant on home help report that their lives would be worse if they did not receive home help they were also amongst the most likely to say they would be helpless without it.

Ninety per cent surveyed in the Western Trust said they would not be able to manage at all without the help they get from their care worker(s).

A significantly higher proportion (95 per cent) of users in the Western HSC Trust than in the Belfast (90 per cent) and South Eastern (90 per cent) HSC Trusts also considered themselves to have a disability.

This tallies with the finding that the Western Trust had the highest proportion of "not able" users in Northern Ireland at 25 per cent, siginficantly higher than the 16 per cent in Belfast, for instance.

The Western and Southern HSC Trusts had significantly lower proportions of users who were supposed to receive less than five hours of home care a week (Western (28 per cent), Southern (30 per cent), South Eastern (39 per cent), Northern (49 per cent), Belfast (51 per cent) and significantly higher proportions of users who were supposed to receive 20 hours or more (Western (16 per cent), Southern (16 per cent), Belfast (9 per cent), South Eastern (8 per cent), Northern (6 per cent) than the Belfast, Northern and South Eastern HSC Trusts.

Consequenlty, the Western HSC Trust had the highest proportion (16 per cent) of users who thought that they needed 5 or more additional hours of home care a week, though, this was only significantly higher than the South Eastern (9 per cent) and Belfast (8 per cent) HSC Trusts.

Those users sampled in the Western Trust were also more likely to say they were not provided with enough information by their service providers.

For example, users in the Belfast (77 per cent) and Western (75 per cent) HSC Trusts were significantly less likely than those in the Southern (86 per cent) and South Eastern (83 per cent) HSC Trusts to say that somebody from the organisation that provided their home care had explained to them what their care worker(s) were supposed to do for them.

And users in the Western (41 per cent) HSC Trust were significantly less likely than those in the other four HSC Trusts (South Eastern (74 per cent), Southern (73 per cent), Belfast (56 per cent) and Northern (56 per cent) to say that they had been given a written guide.

On a more positive note users in the Belfast (71 per cent) and Northern (69 per cent) HSC Trusts were significantly less likely than those in the Southern (82 per cent) and Western (80 per cent) HSC Trusts to say that they had been asked by their care providers what times would be convenient for them.