This article focuses on a method called “cost-effectiveness decision modelling,” which can help improve decision-making in social care. Social care provides essential services to people who need help with daily activities due to age, illness, or disability. Even though economic evaluation is common in other areas of health, it hasn’t been widely used in social care, where the need for thoughtful use of limited resources is just as important. Recently, however, there’s been more interest in using cost-effectiveness models to inform decisions about which services provide the best value for the resources spent.
In this article, we explore why decision modelling is important for social care, how it has been used in the past, and what needs to happen to make it a more reliable and useful tool. Decision modelling brings together information from different sources, like research studies and expert opinions, to help predict the costs and benefits of different services. By comparing different care options, decision modelling can show which services deliver the best outcomes for individuals and the community.
Our review of existing research found that decision modelling in social care is still quite limited, with only a small number of examples available. The studies we found used different approaches, which makes it difficult to compare their results. However, these models show the potential of decision modelling to improve how resources are allocated in social care.
To make this tool more effective, further research is needed to standardize the methods used and ensure that models are robust and reliable. With these improvements, decision modelling could play an important role in helping policymakers and practitioners make better, more informed decisions about social care services.
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