National Care Service - social care support and service provision: evidence

Glossary

Community alarm: type of equipment for communication, especially useful as an alert should the user have an incident where they need to call for help quickly.

Day Care: involves attendance at a location other than the person’s own home for personal, social, therapeutic, training or leisure purposes. Day care services can be registered or unregistered services.

Care at Home: practical services which assist a person to function as independently as possible and/or continue to live in their own home. This can include personal care, reablement, respite and household tasks such as housework, shopping, laundry and/or paying bills.

Care at Home Census week: To allow comparison with figures previously published by the Scottish Government an estimated number of people receiving Care at Home as well as Care at Home hours has been calculated for a 'census week' (last week in March, 25 March to 31 March). The home care hours were estimated by calculating the average number of hours per day for each individual. This was then multiplied by the number of days the person received home care in the 'census week'.

Care Home: A ‘care home’ is defined as a nursing or residential care facility that provides 24-hour care to its residents. Care home residents within the same care home may receive residential care or residential and nursing care if this is required by the individual^[26].

Personal Care: includes assistance with activities such as eating or bathing, as well as other care of a personal nature. A fuller list of the types of care counted as personal care can be found on the Care Information Scotland website^[27].

Residential Care: A residential care home provides accommodation and 24-hour personal care and support to older people and others who may find it difficult to manage daily life at home.

Residential and Nursing Care: A residential and nursing care home provides care and support for people with specific conditions or different types of disabilities who struggle significantly with daily life and need the added support. In a nursing home care facility, there is always at least one qualified and registered nurse on site, meaning residents have access to 24-hour medical care and skilled nursing support.

Self Directed Support (SDS): Self-directed Support legislation means that all people accessing care and support should be given a choice as to how they wish to receive their support. There are four different ways of accessing social care support through SDS:

• Option 1: Taken as a Direct Payment.
• Option 2: Allocated to an organisation that the person chooses and the person is in charge of how it is spent.
• Option 3: The person chooses to allow the council to arrange and determine their services.
• Option 4: The person can choose a mix of these options for different types of support.

Telecare: remote or enhanced delivery of care services to people in their own home by means of telecommunications and computerised services.