Media Centre
Minister for Ageing launches Baptcare's PITCH study
Publish Date: 24/07/2008
Author: Marketing and Communications Dept.
Predictors Influencing The Change in Health Status of Elderly in Community Care
Commissioned by Baptcare and conducted by Monash University’s Department of Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine, the PITCH study examined the changing health status and wellbeing of clients receiving Commonwealth funded community care packages through Baptcare over a 12 month period.
The ground-breaking longitudinal study was launched in July 2008 by the Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, and has provided insight into some of the most critical issues affecting the delivery of aged care today including depression and social isolation, and is the first of its kind in Australia.
The project followed 300 Baptcare clients across Victoria, and captured the client/consumer’s view of their own health as a recipient of a community care package in the areas of physical and mental health, social and community service interaction and the level of carer strain experienced by informal carers.
Key results of the PITCH study
The study recorded the triggers that see clients move to higher levels of community care or into residential care. Key results included:
- Over 44% of clients experienced a major change in health status, defined as death, movement to residential care, cognitive decline or loss of an independent activity of daily living;
- Over 50% of care package recipients reported experiencing mild or severe depression;
- 61% of care recipients had a carer, and two thirds of these carers reported record high levels of carer strain;
- People from a lower socio-economic status were more likely to experience a significant change in health status and also require a change to a higher needs package of care; and
- Those receiving community care packages had high levels of co-morbid conditions; cardiovascular disease being the most common.
Why we commissioned the study
As a leading aged care provider, Baptcare seeks to contribute to and influence the national aged care agenda for the benefit of clients and carers.
We anticipate that PITCH will be used by service providers, consumers and funding agencies across the country to inform the delivery of community aged care packages, and to develop strategies to improve the health related quality of life of those receiving community packages and their carers,
PITCH was undertaken as a first step towards identifying the strategies that have the best match to client needs – we needed to understand our client group in order to see where we need to look for good practices, stabilising practices and practices that deserve attention and effort to optimise the ageing experience for clients.
We undertook PITCH because we could not locate any data against which we could compare our practices. PITCH is a reference point for Baptcare clients and now also for the packaged care sector nationally.
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