ABSTRACT
The evaluation basis for a public policy preferring community care to hospital residence for people with long-term care needs is limited. The present ferment of change provides opportunities for weighing one kind of solution against another in order to determine which is more effective for meeting the particular problems of a particular community. There is no shortage of argument about the fundamental right of people to live ‘ordinary lives’ in the community, and consequently – following this line of argument – it is unnecessary to have to ‘prove’ that it is more effective. Deficiencies in respect of objectives are related to needs. The precise definition and measurement of this decidedly glutinous concept is far from easy. For the present purposes it is not necessary for us to engage in the debates about positive versus normative need concepts, or other issues.
