TITLE:
Why Is Case Management Effective? A Realist Evaluation of Case Management for Frail, Community-Dwelling Older People: Lessons Learned from Belgium
AUTHORS:
Thérèse Van Durme, Olivier Schmitz, Sophie Cès, Anne-Sophie Lambert, Jenny Billings, Sibyl Anthierens, Maja Lopez-Hartmann, Roy Remmen, Johanna De Almeida Mello, Anja Declercq, Jean Macq
KEYWORDS:
Realist Evaluation, Frail Older People, Case Management, Home Care
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.6 No.10,
October
28,
2016
ABSTRACT: Despite many attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of case management for frail older people, systematic reviews including experimental designs show inconsistent results. Starting from the view that case management is a complex intervention occurring in multilayered realities, we conducted a realist evaluation of case management in Belgium, where this type of intervention is new. Realist approaches are particularly well suited to evaluate complex interventions as they seek to investigate iteratively the literature and empirical data to uncover mid-range theories underpinning the intervention under study. As such, realist evaluations are works in progress which provide tools to describe how, why and for whom an intervention is supposed to work. In this paper, we describe two mid-range theories that can explain why case management can help frail older people to remain at home, through the lens of capacity and social support.