How can we make it simpler for old people
to arrange the right social care and funding?

Approach

Secondary research: we started by reviewing relevant research that has been done by NHS and local authorities, government policies that influence social care and social media content, user discussions and comments to understand the context and plan our discovery.

Social care and funding options available to old people

I reviewed all healthcare and social care options available to old people and their carers, so that we could provide a clear and comprehensive guidance for our users. I focused on the core types of care and specific products and services offered to old people and carers, and identified public and private organisations involved in arranging, funding and providing the care and their eligibility requirements.

In addition to information provided by these organisations, we interviewed people involved in the process to get their perspective on how the processes work in practice and what could be done better. I documented the findings in the Value Exchange Map below. It served as a clear visual reference for the team and stakeholders when planning user journeys and content.

Experience of arranging and receiving social care (old people)

Ethnographic research with users: we conducted over 50 interviews with old people and their carers, usually their children or family members. The interviewees were chosen to provide a good coverage of typical reasons for needing social care, types of social care they received, different socio-economic backgrounds and different regions of England, from urban to remote areas.

The insights from this research gave us a broad understanding of the typical steps involved in arranging social care, core challenges and pain points old people and their families confront at each step of this journey.

We met old people in their homes, where they told us about their everyday life and many practical and emotional difficulties and needs they have. The described the types of help and support they had been receiving from from local authorities, NHS and their family. The help they received varied widely from special equipment installed in their homes, to carers coming a few times per week to help with shopping and light house work, all the way to having a dedicated full time carer or going into a care home.

The old people shared with us, what they had to do to arrange the social and medical care, how they found the right information and support and how they felt about it at each step.

I documented our learnings in an Experience Matrix, showing all possible ways to complete each step on a high level, rather than focusing on a single core journey in detail as Experience Map.

Experience of arranging and providing social care (care providers)

Ethnographic research with providers: we interviewed professionals involved in arranging and providing healthcare and social care in their work environment to understand their workflows and experience of providing social care.

We spoke with medical professionals (GPs, nurses, hospital doctors and consultants), professional care providers (carers working in care agencies and care homes) and social care workers at local authorities (social workers, call centre advisors, managers and policy makers).

These interviews helped us understand their role in the process of arranging and providing social care, their typical day in life and the goals they were expected to meet, how they exchanged information or interacted with other care providers. We shared these insights with out team and stakeholders to build empathy with challenges care providers had to deal with on a practical and emotional level, and the time pressure they are under.

We also looked at what each of them learn about the patient over time, and realised that each type of care provider may have quite different perspectives on the patient, depending on what they are exposed to and the person chooses to share with them, so each of them have a fragmented and incomplete view. This problem is particularly pronounced in patients with dementia. We defined the types of information, that would be beneficial for all care providers to share to have a more complete picture of the patient and provide better care as a result.

Supporting emotional needs of old people going
through a life changing transition

Apart from the practical needs of old people, it is very important to consider their emotional needs.

People applying for social care are often going through a major transition in their lives. They might have lost their spouse, who they shared their lives with for decades, and are feeling devastated and lost. They might have suffered a serious illness, and have to come to terms with their new limitations, not being able to do many things they used to take for granted.

Longer term, loneliness and social isolation is one of the most significant problems old people experience, especially if they have limited mobility. Fear of uncertainty and anxiety about the future; resisting changes and not willing to adapt and lack of purpose are most common themes we identified.

I synthesised the learnings from our interviews as Emotional Maps for old people and their carers, focusing on emotional themes and behaviour patterns and also on needs and wants. The emotional maps show key themes with many real life examples and quotes of people we interviewed.
The outcomes of this research allowed us to help stakeholders build empathy with the target users, and bear it in mind when designing policies, processes and content.

Supporting decision making

During this extremely difficult time, they are expected to make very important choices that will affect the rest of their lives. The way we guide them through the process can make a real difference and help them choose the right types of care and support that they can afford over years to come, taking advantage of any funding they are eligible for.

Understanding how they make decisions helps to decide what information is essential for each step in the journey, find the right level of detail, tone of voice and presentation. For example, an old man, who lost his wife, who looked after him for decades, may not want to read long pages of factual information, but rather watch someone who has been in his situation, talking about he got through it and received care and support.

Task Model shows decision making process. I identified parts of the process when decision making is linear and users cannot continue until they made a choice at each step; when it is exploratory, where users can choose any number of options (complex evaluation), and when they have to make decisions about a set of options (controlled evaluation).

Industry trends analysis

I researched best practices for providing social care around the world, covering a wide range of products, services and policies. I found great international examples of providing medical, practical and emotional support to old people through good design. They ranged from innovative housing design optimised for the needs of old people in Sweden, to specialised equipment, allowing old people be more independent and need less carers’ attention, or social engagement programmes, allowing old people share their skills and experience with young people in Netherlands to companion robots, providing advice and empathy in Japan.

Market research

To be up-to-date with the UK market we also attended a Carers conference to immerse ourselves in the world of caring and understand the ecosystem of product and service providers for this sector, and what old people, carers, social care organisations and NHS can have access to.

Outcomes

Clear overview of all social care and funding options available to old people and their carers: we used it to align stakeholders and create content and communication for people receiving, arranging and providing care.

Map of possible scenarios of arranging and receiving social care (from old people and carers perspective).
This was immediately useful for creating guiding content to explaining what each person can do to arrange the right care and funding. We provided recommendations on how to resolve many pain points that users shared with us.

More effective information sharing between all care providers
We made recommendations on how to better capture, share and access information about a patient for each role involved in providing care, e.g., GPs, hospital nurses, doctors and consultants, social workers, professional carers and informal carers (usually family members). We proposed the types of information that would be beneficial to share between care providers to have a more complete picture of a patient and provide best possible care.

Designing policies and processes with empathy
Emotional maps help stakeholders build empathy with users, and understand what old people feel when going through the process of arranging social care. Relating to user emotions help to appreciate the full impact, that a change of policy or process may have on real people.

Designing content with empathy
It is important to keep in mind user’s emotional state, when creating content and providing guidance. Understanding their feelings, needs and wants helps content managers and copywriters choose the right types of content for each step in the journey, the right level of detail, tone of voice and the right way to present it.

Simplifying guidance and support to help people to find the right care that they can afford.