Examining day centre provision for older people in the UK using the Equality Act 2010: findings of a scoping review.

This article reports the findings from a literature review of day care services undertaken during March-June 2012 and repeated in May 2013. The databases searched included AgeInfo, Embase, Medline, PsycINFO, Social Care Online, Web of Science and the publication platform Ingenta Connect as well as specialist older people's sites. It discusses these findings in the context of services for older people in the UK, defined as those aged 65 years and over. The aim of the scoping review was to identify what is known about how day services (here confined to congregate day care or day centres) will meet the challenges posed by the Equality Act 2010 in supporting different user groups, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender older people or older people from minority ethnic groups. The review found that research on all aspects of day services was limited and that information about older people using such services was often provided context-free. It concludes that those funding or evaluating day services' support to diverse groups of older people need to urgently address matters such as differential access and differential views about specific services.