Prepared for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and the Administration on Aging By Lewin-VHI, Inc., subcontactors to Research Triangle Institute
Feburary, 1996.
"Assisted living" is a term that generally refers to a type of care that combines housing and supportive services in a "homelike" environment and that strives to maximize the individual functioning and autonomy of residents. This document provides a review of published and unpublished literature on assisted living for the period 1992 through September, 1995. This literature review serves as an update to a review of the literature conducted for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in 1992. Like its predecessor, this review focuses on assisted living for the frail elderly.
The review of the literature published since 1992 indicates a heightened interest in assisted living. In general, the articles written over the past two to three years have become increasingly more specific and more exhaustive of the subject of assisted living. Opportunities for HUD Section 232 financing and Medicaid waivers have inspired many of the recent articles and reports. In addition, research on the needs of dementia patients and "best practices" research on living arrangements for the frail elderly in general have also had an impact on recent writing on assisted living. However, a general consensus in the literature regarding definitions of assisted living and its attendant services and amenities continues to be lacking.
The full report is available in the Portable Document Format (PDF) for viewing here. You will need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader to use with your browser. A free copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader is available here.
Questions and comments should be addressed to Bob Clark.