Years of the research: 2012
Country: Romania
Language: Romanian
Keywords:
Abstract:
The project developed and tested a methodology to assess the social services both from quantitative and qualitative perspectives. To get an overview of social services for the elderly, the research has started to analyse the most appropriate methods to evaluate social services and their quality. To highlight the current concerns of providers of social services for the elderly it has been developed a methodology with two components: the supplier and the recipient. The methodology enables regular quantitative and qualitative evaluation of social services for the elderly taking into account the existing quality standards. Ongoing monitoring of social services creates prerequisites for tracking progress over time to improve/complete quality standards in line with the expectations and needs of the beneficiaries and not least to improve procedures for accreditation of providers of social services for the elderly. The purpose is to increase the quality and efficiency of the services they provided and the quality of life of beneficiaries of social services. The methodology and the tools were tested and improved during the survey conducted with suppliers and recipients of social services in Bucharest.
Researchers:
Type of research: national
Target group: Public and private providers of social services for elderly; Beneficiaries of social services
Sample:
Methodology with two components: Quantitative assessment through the investigation of social services providers. Research method – questionnaire based survey applied face-to-face to all accredited social services providers. The questionnaire has 10 themes (organization and communication, human resources, services, rights and ethics, care, accommodation, rehabilitation, social integration, complaints, socio-economic data). Qualitative assessment through the investigation of beneficiaries. Research method - questionnaire based survey applied face-to-face to elderly. The questionnaire has 7 themes (the profile of the respondent, services, human resources, accommodation, social integration, complaints, socio-economic data). In this case, a number of factors may affect the accuracy and reliability of data collection, factors related to: - the specific of the target group: elderly represent a category of persons in case of whom errors caused by the respondent during the data collection occupy a larger share than other categories of persons (defined by age); - the identification of respondents to extract the samples: the availability of public service providers to make available lists of recipients to randomly extract the recipients to be investigated. Given the specifics of population, a stratified proportional sample is proposed. The layers that will result must be mutually exclusive and collective exhaustively. It is expected that the evaluation of social services for the elderly vary depending on the place of provision of social services and legal status of the provider of social services (according to the current legal framework definitions). The layers should be: - Place of provision: social services provided in day care centres, residential centres, domicile, community. - Legal status of the provider: public, private. Total number of layers: 8. If the sample should be representative at regional level, the development region should be included as a layer. In this case, the total number of layer will become 80, as Romania has 8 development regions. Sampling error ± 3-5 %, for a confidence level of 95 %. The proposed methodology is quantitative and uses two questionnaires as main tools for collecting data and information. The methodology was developed to be applied at national level, but tested only in Bucharest, due to the financial and time constraints. Quantitative assessment (providers’ level): from a number of 40 accredited social services providers, 27 accepted to participate at the survey. Collection of data took place between 9.04-11.05.2012. Qualitative assessment (beneficiaries’ level): pilot testing on a sample of 120 persons selected on the following criteria: age and type of provider. Response rate 84.2%. Collection of data took place between 24.04-14.05.2012.
Aims/Objectives/Background:
The objectives of the project are: - quantitative and qualitative assessment of social services; - regional disparity in the supply of public and private social services; - types of social services that can be provided to elderly in institutions, day centres, etc. and at home; access conditions to social services for older people; financing arrangements; - organizational and financial management analysis in social services administration; constraints and opportunities. The aging process has a number of economic and social effects. At social level ageing phenomenon requires a growing social need for seniors, especially for people who have a poor coverage of social security and the lack of help from family. Dependence on family or local social services becomes more visible as people get old. The number of researches concerning ageing and implications for the social assistance field are limited. The project analyses the dispersion of the aging population through the country. Results are reported to the existing offer of public and private social services. It also analyzed the measures and approved programs for social protection of this population and their degree of implementation in the reference period 2005-2008. Unfortunately, the supply of services for older people in this area is quite limited; most services are set up based on funds from external sources, programs or donations. Also, regional dispersion in the supply of social services for this group of people does not correspond to the situation of an aging population, so that regions with a high degree of aging do not have homes for the elderly. Recently, the institutionalized services are increasingly demanded.
Findings/outcome/conclusion/research questions:
Analysing data on quality of social services provided by social service providers has revealed that providers were interested to involve staff and beneficiaries in the process of continuous improvement of quality. Social services providers in Bucharest have expressed concerns to improve the competences of staff, most often, in the form of training courses. Data showed that personnel who participated in the study are adequate in number and competences with the services provided. Most of them were trained in quality standards established by national legislation on social assistance and also received training on quality systems ISO 9000. Despite the positive findings, we believe that the system cannot function effectively without adequate staff (in terms of quantity and quality), therefore appropriate measures are necessary to implement human resource management. All suppliers showed less interest to use indicators to measure the quality of life of elderly people served. Reported to the quality standards for home care services and those provided in residential system, data has revealed that most of the suppliers are in compliance with the minimum standards required and less interest to overcome them. The questionnaire applied to recipients of social services has highlighted the main motivations of elderly when they choose a certain provider. The views expressed are important and can be used by public and private providers to identify the unmet needs. Data collected have showed that the elderly respondents were not fully informed about their rights as beneficiaries of social services. In conclusion, social service providers in Romania must integrate greater quality aspects. Regardless of ownership (public or private), social services for the elderly should be built and developed in terms of quality. Ensuring quality requires the development of a culture of quality, multidisciplinary approaches and regular feed-back from professionals and beneficiaries.
Publication/reports: 2 research reports in Romanian language, available at request: - 'Analiza sistemului de protecție socială a persoanelor vârstnice din România, a stadiului de organizare și a nivelului de acoperire a nevoilor pentru protecția socială a acestora'/'The system of social protection for elderly in Romania, organisation and coverage of needs' - 'Elaborarea metodologiei de evaluarea cantitativă şi calitativă a ofertei de servicii sociale din sectorul public şi privat. Testarea metodologiei. Model de evaluare şi monitorizare a sistemului de protecţie socială pentru persoanele vârstnice'/'Methodology to assess the quality of public and private social services. Pilot testing. Model to asses and to monitor the social assistance system for elderly' 1 book - Ghenţa M., Matei A., Sănduleasa B., 2012. 'Social assistance of elderly in Romania/Asistenţa socială a persoanelor vârstnice în România', AGIR Publshing House, Bucharest, ISBN 978-973-720-440-0. 1 paper presented in international conference - Ghenţa M., Matei A., Sănduleasa B., 'Quality assessment of social services for elderly: employees and beneficiaries involvement' at The XXII. International RESER Conference “Services and economic development: local and global challenges”, Bucharest, Romania, 20-22 Septembrie 2012
Financed by: Ministry of National Education – National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS)
Contact person: Mihaela Ghenţa, ghenta@incsmps.ro
Copyright
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