Can interventions reduce the need for social care?
Modelling the impact of preventive interventions on adult social care
What are we trying to find out?
We want to understand:
- What would be the health, wellbeing and economic consequences of making evidence-based initiatives and preventive actions available to everyone who is eligible and wants them?
- How do these consequences vary in relation to inequalities and inequities?
- What effect would scaling-up these approaches have on future demand for social care?
Our overarching question is:
Do initiatives to reduce the risk of dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions, or slow their progression, have impacts on quality of life, future need for social care, and future costs of care?
Why is this important?
Living with dementia or another neurodegenerative condition brings financial pressures. These could be personal costs: paying for care or giving up work to support someone. They can also be public costs: how much it costs to provide social care services.
What could reduce the costs of adult social care?
- Reducing the number of people developing these conditions
- Delaying when people develop these conditions
- Sowing the progression of neurodegenerative conditions
Different evidence-based preventative actions are known to influence these three areas.
However, we do not know what economic impact these kinds of initiatives could have. Understanding this impact, including on demand for social care, can inform decisions about investing in these actions. This may ultimately improve quality of life for large numbers of people and their ability to live independently.
How are we going to do it?
First, we will carry out a review of existing knowledge on which risk factors could potentially be reduced for dementia and some neurodegenerative conditions. We will also look for evidence on actions that help address those risks and approaches that have been shown to slow progression. We will consult with people with dementia or other neurodegenerative conditions and carers, and with health and care professionals, to help us fill in gaps in existing knowledge.
We will then calculate the impacts of making these methods more widely available across the population. We are interested in the impacts for everyone, however much money they have. This analysis will be carried out using a simulation model.
We will also highlight areas in which there is no, or very little, scientific evidence available. This will make research funders and the research community aware of the gaps in knowledge we have identified.
Who is involved?
Professor Martin Knapp and Ms Adelina Comas-Herrera from LSE are leading the project. William Byrd, Dr Magdalena Walbaum, and Juliette Bross are members of the project team at LSE.
Professor Kaarin Anstey (UNSW), Dr Sahdia Parveen (Bradford) and Professor Linda Clare (Exeter) are Co-Investigators.
Interested members of the Involvement Network are part of the project, advising on direction and commenting on emerging findings.
We may link with other PRUs in Adult Social Care, Behavioural Science, Health and Care Workforce, and Healthy Ageing.
How will we share our findings?
We will
- Produce a report for each part of the project, with clear recommendations, for the Department of Health and Social Care
- Produce accessible summaries for the general public and people affected by neurodegenerative conditions
- Promote findings online and via social media, in conference presentations, and via webinars for key audiences