ABSTRACT
Arguably, users' length of stay in the community (DAYS) is the output that reflects the most important goal of the 1989 White Paper. Chapter 11 showed an additional reason for the significance of this output. Three of the most important general outputs for the two main beneficiary stakeholders appear to be causally linked and, arguably, they are the three most important outputs, (a) The higher the level of user satisfaction produced by the services, the fewer resources are required to reduce (b) caregivers' sense of burden to a targeted degree. The lower the level of caregivers' sense of burden, the fewer resources are required to achieve (c) a targeted reduction in the number of days spent at home rather than in institutions for long-term care. To paraphrase: for many, user satisfaction contributes to, and is associated with reduced sense of caregiver burden; and a feeling that the burden is less contributes to increased length of stay in the community. So the choice of increased length of stay in the community might also secure the relief of caregiver stress as a means to that end, and enhance user satisfaction. That will be tested below.
