Planning care for elderly people using the balance of care model.

Planning health and social services for client groups has become an integral part of the planning process within the United Kingdom. The Department of Health's microcomputer model--Balance of Care--attempts to analyse different policies for the care of the elderly and to assess the consequences of such policies in terms of the resources required. This paper shows how the model operates using data from a survey of elderly people in Northern Ireland. An attempt is also made to introduce economic principles into the decision making process. Attention is drawn to the economist's definition of costs and how this can differ from the public expenditure concept of costs. A further area of interest is the process of allocating people to specific types of care. The economic approach points to the need to make explicit valuations of the benefits of various services against a background of costs. Within this context, the Balance of Care model can be used to consider various scenarios and as such is a useful tool in the decision making process.