The Impact of In-Home Services Termination on Family Caregivers

This article examines the impact of a state policy change — the loss of in-home chore services — on families providing care for older relatives. The presence or absence of chore services was not associated with caregiving behavior, perceptions of burden, or stress among relatives of both terminated and continuing clients. A significant relationship was found, however, between the perception of burden and the performance of personal care tasks, which suggests that chore services do not coordinate with families regarding the most burdensome caregiving tasks.